Geetah: Chronicles of an Arborum Heroine
by Sabaal
Summary: What were those red eyes in the tree? what's the creature's intention? Nothing's what it seems to be in this world.
1. Prologue

**Geetah: Chronicles of an Arborum Heroine**

**A/N:** First: this is NOT a D&D story, but is in a very similar world called Geeah. I just put this story here because I didn't know where ese to publish it, so if anyone knows I'd be gratefull to tell me and help. Second: Ok, ok. Yes, I'm a big fan of the novels of Myst, so I took a name from there for my principal character in this story, but only the name, not the personality or race. My heroine is an Arborum, one of the people of the trees, not a D'ni. This is the story of my character in a cool Role Playing Game that my friend Rafael Leonard invented and I played her for around 4 years.

**Prologue:**

It was an ordinary morning in the Arborum Village that was in the forests near the city of Horside, in the world of Geetah. Everything was quiet, as usual and everyone was concerned of their own affairs.

Tahli, the leader of the village and his family were having Breakfast in their house over a big oak.

_- "Kedri, don't make noises to drink your milk"_ he sayed, gently but firmly, to his 9 years old daughter who was sitting in front of him, looking at him with her now surprised green eyes and smiled

_- "Oh, ok, Daddy"_ she sayed, smiling and stopped making disgusting noises.

Her mother, Tiare, was finishing making some eggs for Tahli, so she was in the kitchen when someone knocked the door.

_- "Tahli, Tahli, some strangers just arrived to the village, they're hurt and we need you to come!"_ It was the voice of one of the rangers that Tahli sent the day before to guard the village. Those were strange times and a evil tyrant human named Pelavin was ruling over the human cities and had everyone terrifyed.

_- "I'll be right there, take them to the Temple for now"_ Tahli and Kedri finished their breakfast fast. He waited for his wife while she was coming to the table.

_- "Yes, I know"_ she sayed _"you have to go. Good luck with the strangers"_ Tiare kissed him in the mouth and sat at Kedri's side.

Tahli went to the Temple while Kedri waited for her mother to finish her meal.

_- "And you, little one,"_ she sayed to her little daughter _"you'd better get going. You're already late for school already, so No-One-Knows will take you, ok?"_

_- "Oh! Yes, mom, see you later, ok?"_ she kissed her mom good bye and left. She went down the tree and looked around. The grey wolf cub was waiting for her and when she smiled at him he whined and approached _"Yes, I know No-One-Knows"_ she told him _"I'm late again, so we'd better go"_ she mounted on his back and the wolf run towards the school.

(Four hours of very boring classes later)

Kedri wasn't really paying attention to the class, thinking on the strangers her father had to see this morning. It wasn't a usual thing that strangers were allowed to come into the village, and less now with Pelavin and his men around the world.

_- "Ok, Class, now you may leave, and don't forget to study because tomorrow you have test"_ the Teacher sayed to the kids while they all screamed _"YAY!"_ because they were finally leaving.

_- "Will you go racing today, Kedri?"_ her best friend, Sila, asked her.

_- "No, Sila, I think I should go home today because some strangers arrived and I want to ask my father about them, but good luck at the race. I'll see you tomorrow"_ Kedri sayed while she mounted her wolf and left.

She heard noises inside her house even when she was down the tree and dismounted fast, concerned on what was happening inside, but once she got inside she saw 5 humans talking with her father and eating. Her mother was bringing them food. They were laughing. Injured but At least they were in a good mood.

_- "Ah, Kedri, come over here"_ her father motioned her to approach and she did silently. _"This is my daughter, Kedri. She's a very promising Archer"_ he kissed her and she took a good look at the men. They all looked like humans from a barbarian tribe. There was something about them that Kedri didn't like… some strange maybe evil light in them.

- _"Joung Lady"_ her mother called her _"I think we have some studying to do. Tomorrow you have a test if I remember well"_ Her mom liked studying with her. It was at least a space they could have together. Kedri, of course, didn't know how valuable was that time for her mother.

_- "Aw, mom, can't we just leave it for later?"_ she asked, but at the look of disappointment of her mother she just sighed and followed her.

The rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Kedri and her mom finished the homework and went playing with No-One-Knows, but every time she crossed the humans she always noticed that strange and evil bright in their eyes. She told her mom but she dismissed it "Kedri, you have always been exceptical to strangers… you concern too much, dear. They'll leave in a day or 2 and that's all. Relax and keep playing" she sayed, trying to calm her daughter, but Kedri's instinct sayed otherwise.

That night, during her sleep, Kedri dreamed of fire… all she could see around was fire and a scream woke her up "MY BABY!" She wasn't totally awake when her father irrupted in her bedroom and took her out of the bed in his arms. She could hear and feel the heat of the flames and the screaming of the people and thought she was still dreaming. Something told her not. In her dream she could only hear the sound of the flames, but didn't feel the heat. When she looked around she saw her village burning. All the houses, the people, in flames. Her people.

_- "Little One,"_ her father sayed while he put her in the back of No-One-Knows _"Little Kedri, I love you, always remember that, ok? Now I have to go back for your mother. Ride on your Wolf and go as far as you can. I promise you, we'll be fine and we'll catch you in the first town you find"_ he sayed this while giving her some money, his sword, bow and quiver _"Take, have this in case you need it. We love you, Kedri, always remember that. Now go and don't look back!"_ he sayed this last sentence while running back over the tree and inside the house

_- "Daddy"_ she whined, still very confused while No-One-Knows, who understood what he had to do, started running away. Suddenly a noise made her look back just in time to see how her home fell, still in flames. In her desperation she jumped off from the back of the wolf, screaming _"NOOO! DADDY! MOMMY!"_ once and again and started running towards the flames to rescue her already dead family, but No-One-Knows didn't let her. He run faster than her and got in the way, forcing her to stop and get away from the flames.

Suddenly she heard a familiar noise

_- "HAHAHAHAHA… YES! THEY BURNED ALL TO ASHES! I love to see this spectacle"_ one of the barbarians sayed _"next time let's burn a bigger village… this Tree-People never see it coming. They're so naive"_ then he noticed the joung Arborum girl watching him, enraged _"Aw… so little daddy's girl survived. Better, that way you'll know you don't have to mess with us. So… you hate me for burning your house? Was your daddy in there? I'm sooooo sorry, little girl"_ he sayed in a mocking tone and Kedri prepared her sword _"Oh, how scary… a little girl with a sword! Uhhh… let me scream in terror"_ the man grabed her sword roughly and threw it away. No-One-Knows was growling and barking at them. The Arborums have always been very close friends to some beasts and to the trees, to the point that they can talk to the trees if they touch them.

The man kicked the wolf in the stomach and he growled in pain.

Kedri went checking on her canine friend while the men walked away, laughing and making fun of all the disgrace they just caused to the people that helped them only hours ago.

_- "You'll be fine, No-One-Knows"_ she sayed with real concern to the wolf while she caressed his fur, trying to make him feel somewhat better_ "I swear those men will pay. We will hunt and kill them even if it takes the rest of our lives. They won't harm another village, tree or wolf again, I promise."_

The wolf whined and closed his eyes, knowing that harder days will come.


	2. Chapter 1: Into the Trap

**JustinTime:** Thanks for the review :D tear drops in emotion and thinks "Oh, my first reviewer… I'm so excited :D"… aaaaand here you have the explanation about the Arborum. So that you know, _"árbol"_ means "tree" in Spanish, ok? So the Arborums are named like that for the trees and that's why they're called that way. "Treerum" didn't sound very good to me. By the way, when I have the whole description of the other races I'll publish a whole document about them, ok? ;)

**Techwitch:** Thanks for your review :D. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I can assure you: this story will be long. The problem is that I only have time to upgrade on Mondays, so please be patient, but expect upgrades on Mondays or twesdays, ok?

**What is an Arborum:**

The Arborums, or Tree-people, like they're usually called, are a very special civilization.

Their skin is white, with deeply marked greenish veins, light eyes with colours that go from green to sky blue, their hair is finely arranged with leaves, pieces of wood, flowers and mud and from their heads grow a little plant that actually is… a part of their bodyes. I spite of their short stature (maximum 1,60 mts – make your own conversions, please) and their thin complexion, they're fantastic hunters, masters of the bow and arrow, something according to their extraordinary senses of sight and hearing, and an almost perfect equilibrium (did I say perfect?... no. Perfection is a road, not a goal. Arborum proverb)

The Arborums can live more less 500 years, unless they die for "natural" causes (if you're caught on a fire or a sword decapitates you, you NATURALLY die J) so a 50 years old Arborum is a teenager.

Like the name says (in Spanish), the Arborums live in trees, alternating between the upper part of the trees and the roots, according to the time of the year.

During the summer, in the upper part of the trees is too hot and glyphons hunt frequently to feed their babyes while in the lower part of the trees is more fresh and humid, you can hunt, fish and collect mushrooms. Is also a good time to teach to the joungs the art of riding on a wolf (a very usefull ability, and above all during the winter). All this makes the Arborum to prefer living _"Down woods"_ during the summer. Of course, during the winter the thing changes. The woods get full of hungry creatures in search of refugee from the snow, but in the upper part there's more light and the glyphons almost don't bother and the wind is excellent to play how to fly on Yip-Yukies.

This is only for the populations that live in meridional weathers, because the ones that live in the ecuator of the world migrate for other reasons to what they call _"Upper woods"_. In any case, even if the weather doesn't demand it, the moving _"Down woods-Upper woods"_ is almost sacred, because they say that in that way you get away from the problems for a while and can look at them from a different angle if you get out of them and look them from outside.

They're also dedicated to agriculture and ingeneering, using complex systems of ropes and elevators, floating bridges, lifting structures and a very noticeable trap system, they make their settlements to resemble true fortresses. They even build complex systems to carry the water that they can use to fight the fire in the woods and they can cut trees with the precision of a clock maker to make a "firecutter" (I don't know the word in English for this, sorry L ). The arborums have no problems with eventual Timber as long as they cut only what they need and the tree they're cutting is really very old, because they'll surely plant another.

The Arborums are good mages, great healers, and the best rangers and archers. Beastriders by excellence. They have very good manners and respect other people's costumes (from respecting to practicing them is a whole other thing).

Now... let's continue with the story, ok?

**Chapter 1: Into the trap:**

It was summer in the northern hemisphere in the world of Geetah and a very lovely morning in the house near the woods where Kedri found hostage to sleep in those days. It was very difficult for her to find hostage at any inn because of her policy of "I don't enter where No One Knows isn't welcome". She understood that humans could be afraid of a wolf, but she wouldn't let her only friend to spend the night all alone in the streets and nobody offered their barns to them. She wondered why this woman, that lived alone in the woods (and was a human) let her stay inside with her wolf.

She had been following the band of barbarians for 30 years and whenever she was close to them something happened and they slipped away.

A week ago she was doing exactly that: following tracks, when she saw a group of men that held Pelavin's insignia asolating the roads of the woods. _"Pelavin"_ she thought _"your power is growing every day. One day you'll pay for everything you've done, I swear"_ The bandits were attacking and old and helpless woman and she couldn't let that pass, so she decided to help the old lady and attacked them. She had gotten a sword recently, but was better with the bow and arrow, so she started shooting the few arrows she had left, and after she was out of arrows, she fought with the sword. The bandits didn't take this short joung "thing" very seriously until she came charing with the sword, but when she killed 2 of them the rest of them escaped. Kedri was also seriously wounded, but she didn't realice that.

"Cowards" she muttered while she sheathed her sword. The woman was just staring at her. No One Knows was unharmed. She fainted.

When she opened her eyes she was lying in a comfortable bed, and No One Knows was lying by her side.

Kedri had stayed with this woman for 3 days, helping her and making all the hard jobs that she couldn't do… it was a way to pay for her room after all, but she thought it was time for her to leave or she would loose track of the barbarians she was following. She got up from her bed and looked herself in the small mirror that was hunging on a wall in the room. She wasn't particularly beautifull, but she thought she wasn't ugly too.

- "Do you need anything, Kedri?" the familiar voice of the woman came from outside the room

- "Just breakfast, if you're so kind" the joung Arborum answered while she started fixing her hair with mud and flowers she found at the woods the day before, then she arranged the leaves of the plant she had in her head. It was a small jasmine plant and she loved the way it smelled in the summer. When she was finally ready she went down and ate breakfast with the human lady. She had already told her that she should be leaving today, so the woman wasn't surprised when she announced to her that she was leaving and she gave her a bundle of arrows and a small bag full of Kedri's favourite candys: sweetened ants. She smiled widely when she saw them and sayed "WOU! THANKS!"

_- "I know you're out of these, so I wanted to give this to you as a gift. I bought them when I went to the market very early this morning" _

- _"Thank you, Laura"_ Kedri smiled at her and gave her a hug _"and thanks for all that you did for me also"_

_- "Aw, that's nothing! You helped me first. That was the least I could do. Just take care, have good luck and come to visit whenever you're around, ok?"_ Kedri nodded and left.

She and her wolf friend walked for hours. They didn't even stop to hunt and eat, but they finally found what they were looking for: a footstep.

Kedri got on her knees and touched it. It was fresh.

_- "Maybe we're lucky today, No One Knows… smell. What do you think? Is it from them?"_ the wolf lowered his head and smelled the footprint on the ground. _"Yes"_ he told to her mentally and nodded. Kedri smiled

_- "This is our day. They can't escape from us now, ok?"_ she sayed while she got up and started climbing to a tree to get a better view.

She saw the murderers of her family a few mwters ahead. They were enering a very strange thing. It looked like a portal, but to where? She climbed down again and motioned No One Knows to follow her. They approached the portal. It looked blue but she couldn't see through it.

Without any second thought she looked at the wolf, took him in her arms and jumped through the strange portal. She found herself in another forest and when she looked back the portal was still there. Kedri and No One Knows sighed in relief.

_- "HAHAHAHAHA…"_ they heard not too close and then the voice of a male started muttering something that she couldn't listen very well, but using the senses of her wolf she heard something about a recent pillage and raping.

Kedri thought of a plan. She wouldn't be able to face them all if they were together, so she needed them to spread. She would face them in turns and silently started to climb a tree and get away from their camp. Away enough to make a little noise so that they would hear it. She told her wolf to stay where he was in case she needed a backup.

"_Crack!"_ she broke a dry piece of wood in the tree where she was and used the senses of her wolf to see what happened at the camp. One of the men heard her and got up.

_-"What's up? Seat down or I'll eat you food"_ one asked.

_- "No, I heard some noises. I thought Pelavin told us this forest had no dwellers" _Pelavin again. Kedri thought she should have known it.

_- "Ok, then go check"_ and the man that heard the noise went.

It was enough of using No One Knows's senses. Time to use her own.

She saw the man coming and tensed the bow, pointing it to him. Her heart was beating so hard that she had to force herself to be calmed. _"Not yet… not yet…" _she told herself while the man was approaching. He stood right under her, looking to both sides; not occurring to him to look up. Big mistake.

Kedri tensed the bow a little more and let the arrow flow directly to the back of his neck and through his throat. He fell to the ground, unable to scream and the arborum climbed down the tree. The man was not yet dead, but she decided to decapitate him… just to spare time, and then she hid the body behind some bushes.

She climbed up again and started using the senses of her wolf again. The men were eating, but the time passed and the other didn't come back. One of them sighed with discomfort and started walking in the same direction.

- "Probably he's taking a lick somewhere. I'll go hurry him" he sayed to his friends and left. Time to use her own senses again. She got another arrow ready.

This man, anyway, was smarter than the other. He stood in exactly the same spot that the first one did, but he did look up. When he saw her he didn't recognize her and he did scream for help, but it also was too late for him. She released the arrow with great precision and it hit right in the middle of his forehead.

Mentally, Kedri gave No One Knows the order to join her where she was. The men had heard the crying for help and they were already running to that place, swords ready to fight. The wolf could see the men running towards where his Arborum friend was and followed as fast as he could.

Kedri saw the men coming, and coming fast. She had time just enough to take out a new arrow. The men were running right to her tree, but what was worse was that the first of them saw her over the branch… and charged against the tree! Kedri let the arrow fly through the air, but missed, because the man hitted right in the moment when she was shooting at the one behind him and hit only in his leg.

Kedri hit the floor. Hard. For the proximity of her foes she couldn't take out a new arrow, but yes her sword. She unsheathed it and fought the barbarian with all her strength. Soon No One Knows came to her aid, right in the moment when the second man reached her. Kedri didn't even have a second to look at her friend. She focused on the first man.

No one was using a shield, so she needed to dodge the hits that she could. Kedri wasn't as good with the sword as she was with the bow and arrows. It didn't mean that she was completely useless with it, but she tried to make every hit count. Soon she found herself fighting 2 men instead of one. No One Knows was very busy killing the other.

One of the men tried to hit her in the arm while the other tried to hit her stomach. The first one missed and Kedri could easily dodge the second hit jumping over his sword. She went for the first man's leg and hitted, but the guy seemed to ignore the pain. Kedri wasn't shocked, but the second hit of the one trying to aim for her arm did hit her. Kedri was in a big disadvantage.

No One Knows, in the mean time, who was fighting with claws and fangs, wanted only to hit the other man's neck. He tried once and again, and the man hitted him with his sword a few times, but seemingly he never fought a wolf before. No One Knows got his neck and as much as the man fought to get rid of his fangs, he didn't let him go. The sweet taste of his blood, and revenge, was too sweet for the wolf to stop. The barbarian bleed to death and he could go to help Kedri.

The fight wasn't short. Kedri dodged and hitted almost all the time, but she still was very damaged. No One Knows helped her too, but the barbarian that he fought knocked him unconscious.

"_I'll take care of this dog later"_ thought the evil man when No One Knows hitted the floor, totally unconscious and bleeding, and went back to fight the heroine, who was almost finished with her opponent. No One Knows successfully bit his neck, just in the same way that he did to the other man, and the Barbarian was bleeding, but he still wanted to fight this Arborum, that he could now say, and with all reason, that was a pain in his ass

"_One last hit and this one's fryed!"_ Kedri thought while she dodged and gave him the last cut. The man fell to the ground and she heard a familiar voice from behind.

_- "So… Little daddy's girl did learn how to use a weapon…"_ the barbarian sayed. He had indeed recognized her. _"I underestimated you. I should have killed you when I could. You've grown up to be a pain in my ass"_. Kedri didn't see his face, but he was truly angry.

_- "Yes, you should have done that, because I'll give you no chance now"_ She turned around quickly, her short sword full of her enemyes blood, and aimed for the man's stomach, giving him no time to fight back. The last barbarian jumped back, while he laughed at her intent.

_- "Hahahahahaha… you'll have to do better. I'll eat your dog friend after I'm through with you… Daddy's Girl"_ he sayed while he aimed for her body too. He was very injured, but was too proud to recognize it and he was trying to hide it from her.

_- "We'll see that… AND HE'S NOT A DOG!"_ Kedri didn't even bother in dodging that last attack. She just faced his sword and successfully attacked him. She thirsted her short sword all the way into his stomach. The wound in her own stomach was deep, but not deadly. She got in her knees, not dropping the sword, and let the own weight of the barbarian do it's work against him. He spilled blood through his mouth and she let him fall _"… and DON'T call me Daddy's Girl"_ she sayed while she sheathed her sword back, looking at the dead man with hatred in her eyes. Then she turned to her wounded friend.

_- "No One Knows… No One Knows… are you ok?"_ the wolf didn't answer. He was too weak even to whine. He was barely breathing, so she took him in her arms and started walking to the only place where she knew she could get help: through the portal, to the old lady's house.

She hoped for the best, because it was the only place where she could ask for help, so she crossed the portal, with her wolf in her arms.

Kedri did get a huge surprise by the other side… an unpleasant surprise, though, because as soon as she arrived to the forest…

_- "You were a pain in the ass, young lass."_ The tall human spoke. He was surrounded by fully armed guards. She didn't recognize the voice, because she never spoke to him personally, but certainly she did recognize the face. Tall human, short black hair, black evil eyes, somehow always young...

- _"Pelavin"_ sayed Kedri. Her voice almost fading. She was about to faint for the blood loss

The evil tyrant grinned evilly

_- "So you DO remember me… good"_ Pelavin motioned his guards to take the wolf away from her. Kedri tried to hold him, but she wasn't strong enough to do so.

_- "No…"_ she muttered and fell to the ground, still conscious.

_- "Yes."_ Pelavin approached her and looked at her _"You caused too much trouble… Kedri, right? Well, now is MY turn."_ He looked to his remaining guards "Take her to the Black Mountain"

_- "And what should we do with the dog, Boss?"_ the guard asked.

_- "That useless furball?"_ Pelavin asked and the guard nodded _"Argh! Just kill him"_ Pelavin sayed with a dismissive gesture of his hand.

Everything turned black for Kedri in that exact moment, but she knew Pelavin meant everything that he sayed.

No One Knows was doomed.

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A/N: Wait for chapter 3. This is just getting started :D:D:D:D... REVIEWS, PLEASE!


	3. Chapter 2: The Black Mountain

**Justintime:** Thanks for the advice about anonymous users. I didn't know where to change that, but now anonymous users are allowed to review me :D I hope you enjoy the Black Mountain now.

**techwitch:** I'm sorry I left you hanged there, but was the most logical moment of the story where to cut everything before starting with the Black Mountain, but the idea is, actually, leave you at the edge of your seat. About the check spell, I thank you for the advice, but is a little difficult to do that from where I am. I use the computer in a public place (the cheaper I can find near my house) and Word here is configurated for Spanish language (I live in Chile; South America). I'll try to check spell any way if I can. Thank you

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**Chapter 2: The Black Mountain**

The Black Mountain, Pelavin's Mountain, Pelavin's Dungeon... all three names for the same hell: the Dungeon of the Mages.

Kedri woke up and the first thing she knew was that her back ached. Badly. Probably Pelavin's guards just threw her there in the same way you throw a sack. She, then opened her eyes and found herself in a place barely illuminated; like twilight, but she could see perfectly even when it was dark. She wondered why.

She looked around her to see that the cell she was in had the perfect shape of a pyramid, being the highest point exactly her same size. The walls were perfect, like if they were covered with some kind of melted stone... a REALLY hard melted stone. No door was visible, and also no window, so she couldn't see if it was day or night.

She started thinking about No One Knows and if he was alive or not… she could feel his presence somewhere, but definitely he was dead... then why did she feel him so present?

The very thought of that made her angry… more angry than she ever was. She didn't even try to calm herself. She felt… Rage. More than anything. Rage above her desire of freedom. Rage above her blood thirst for Pelavin's blood. Rage and her body started to ache. She could feel like if every single little muscle and bone of her body was being stretched, her eyes also hurt and she shut them in a futile intent of stop all this pain. It was unbearable.

Besides, she grew so much that had to seat in the floor, because now she wasn't her usual 1,60 mt. high. Now she was 2,40 mt. high! She wanted to scream but when she opened her mouth all it came out from it was a lowd howling. She didn't realise what she was doing, though, and she howled with all her strength. She realised that she wasn't screaming and covered her mouth with her hands and then she saw herself... with horror.

Her hands were furry! as well as the rest of her body! and she had quite sharp claws in her hands and feet!. She saw none of her clothing on the floor and supposed they had, somehow, been absorbed by her body. She didn't cry for her wolf. She knew why she still felt his presence now. Pelavin, if she ever found him, was in BIIIIIG trouble.

-"Whoa!" she grinned "so the legends ARE true" after all she wasn't just an Arborum; she was also a Shoni (1) and understood that she had absorbed the essence of her wolf. "Shonis, then, aren't so easy to kill after all."

She understood that now that No One Knows was dead she turned into a werewolf... if she was the one that died No One Knows would be the werewolf, so her lupine friend was still somehow with her. She cried of joy for that, but she was still angry and scratched the walls with her new claws desperately. All she wanted was to get out of there, but it was useless. No matter how much she scratched or how strong she was, she didn't do a single little scratch to the wall.

She sat and cried. When she calmed down and looked at herself again she wasn't furry any more and looked like a regular Arborum once again.

The next day (she supposed was a day) the cell was totally different. It was almost twice as big than the first day, and it wasn't a triangle. It was a huge and perfect cubic space, but the walls were still the same way the day before. Every day the cell was different shape and size. Sometimes Kedri found herself in a cell so small that she could only stand up and not move. She was afraid that one day her cell could disappear, burying her under tons of dust and killing her.

And every day was also the same silence inside. She thought she was going to get crazy if she stayed there for much longer, so she started talking to herself.

6 months passed that way. Every day a hand passed through the wall and gave her food and water, and when she charged against the place where the hand had appeared only to find that there was only solid wall there too. The whole dungeon was, if that was what it was, a magical hell.

One "morning" Kedri woke up and found that she was in a reasonable sized cubic cell, like some other days, but now the walls didn't look the same. They were not perfect walls covered with melted stone; they were irregular, like roughly carved in the inside of the mountain, but she still couldn't see any door or cell bars.

She transformed to her werewolf form once again, closed her eyes and hesitated, but tried once again to scratch the walls and see if something happened.

To her surprise, when she re opened her eyes, it did. There was a scratch in the wall... there was hope! Kedri smiled and continued scratching as fast as she could. When she had made a hole that allowed to get out, she did and found herself in a long hallway. She looked at both sides of the hallway and saw a few other fingers coming out from the wall. She started helping them to get out.

One of them was a warrior Sholot woman, the second was a Piggot woman that looked as a healer of some class, the third was a human, but Kedri couldn't know for sure, for the way he looked like, the profession he had. The last person got out of his cell on his own and that was the bigger surprise for Kedri, because it was another Arborum, a male, and he did have a wolf with him. Every one started laughing and hugging each other. Kedri looked at the other Arborum with curiosity. She was 9 when she saw another of her race the last time. Now she was almost 40, but it was good to see someone of her race again... more than that, it was good to see someone again after being 6 months stucked in there.

They introduced to each other. The Sholot woman was Danitza, the Piggot was Tor Cal Dahra, the Arborum was Ig and his wolf was Gaarf, and the other human was called Planchet. He was the most reserved of the group and didn't talk much.

Suddenly the wolf heard something. Kedri heard it too.

- "heeeeelppp... pleeeaseee" it was a very faint voice. Gaarv started smelling and he barked when he reached a spot of the wall. None of them had any weapon, so Kedri didn't go back to her Arborum form and scratched the wall there. She made a medium sized hole and pulled out a really old man.

- "Thank you, daughter..." the old man said while patting her shoulder with an uncommon strength for such an old looking man "Now I have saved you"

Everybody looked at him in disbelief, mouths opened, while he did and said the same to all of them.

-"W... What?" Dahra said "It was us the ones who got you out of that cell!"

-"I know" said the old man "but I saved you. I'm Mahatma, the one chosen and sent to stop Pelavin's evil ruling... and you're my army"

Everybody's mouth dropped opened in disbelief, but they let that pass. All of them but Planchet.

- "Your army? W... wait... I'm no warrior. I can't be from an Army"

Kedri patted his shoulder

- "Looks like you're part of one now" Kedri thought Mahatma was crazy, but funny.

Danitza, who was standing behind Mahatma, put her finger against her head and made a sign like saying "this guy's a looney" and everyone started laughing.

-"What?" asked Mahatma and looked around in the very second that Danitza stopped doing it and looked to the ceiling with an angel face.

- "Nothing, your eminence" said Dahra, trying to hold her laughter "let's just get out of here and get you to a safer place"

So the group started walking. They didn't know where to go, so they decided to walk to their right, hoping that direction would take them out.

They walked for a few meters and heard noise coming from the corner. Laughter and steps. Heavy steps. It was too late to go back to the cells and they were all too angry to do so, so they decided to fight even with their bare hands if necessary. 7 guards were coming. Kedri, still in her werewolf shape, jumped in front of them, howling like a savage wolf, attacking 2 of them with her new claws. The guards were too surprised to react. They didn't expect the attack. They thought the prisoners were all in their cells!

Mahatma stayed behind with Planchet while the rest killed the guards. Ig, Danitza and Dahra took the weapons of the guards and killed with them and Gaarv attacked them just like Kedri: with claws and fangs. They were easy to kill.

- "PLANCHET!" Kedri shouted at him "YOU DID NOTHING TO HELP! DID YOU REALLY STAND THERE ALL THE TIME WHILE WE DID ALL THE FIGHTING?"

- "Take it easy, tree-girl. I was taking care of our guest here" he tried to justify himself and pointed at Mahatma, who nodded, but Kedri was so angry that if it wasn't for Dahra she would have killed the human.

- "Calm down, Kedri. There's no use in killing him. We might need whatever abilities he might have soon" Dahra said.

Kedri gave Planchet a dreadful glare and muttered "he'd better have any"

They took all the spears and clothes that the dead guards had, even if they didn't know how to use them very well, got dressed and continued walking. Finally they arrived to a small kitchen, with a lot of barrels, a table, chairs... they searched inside the barrels and found food, water, wine, salt. Two of the three barrels with food were eatable. It didn't taste good, but at least it wasn't rotten. The water wasn't fresh and the wine was vinegar now. They left everything they couldn't eat right there. It was useless to carry all that weight. Planchet found a knife stuck in a table and took it, looked at it and put it in his pants, ready to take it out if needed.

At the other side of the kitchen there was a door that leaded to a tunnel. As soon as they all entered the tunnel the door closed and disappeared. With her senses enhanced, Kedri looked around and read an inscription in the wall.

"... Don't you turn or look around, because the eyes that follow you are worse than death..."

None of them dared to look back, afraid of what they might find, but Kedri did look to her sides and to the ceiling. She saw no Ceiling. It was too dark, but all she saw in the walls and in whatever was above them were red eyes. Red eyes everywhere. They got to a place in the tunnel that seemed to be a little lighter, but what they saw was scary.

A group of demons... 3 of them were looking at the heroes, staring at them. They didn't attack; they only said that they should open the 7 doors. The first door was a math problem that Danitza solved easily and the demons let the group pass, saying nothing about the other 6 doors. Kedri asked about them and all the demons said was "You'll know them when the time comes". Kedri just shrugged and kept walking with the rest of her new found friends behind her.

Suddenly they saw a hole ahead. It was too big to just jump and they couldn't walk around it, when they saw inside the hole it was full of dead corpses in different states. There were skulls, bodies with some flesh still in them and all the states between those. None of them really wanted to fall inside, so they tried to jump with the help of the spares. Kedri jumped first and she succeeded, so did Gaarv, Ig, Dahra and Danitza. Mahatma and Planchet fell in the hole. Danitza and Dahra tried to help Planchet while Ig and Kedri helped Mahatma, but they slipped inside the hole and started to drawn in the dead corpses. Gaarv falled over Ig and started drawning too. They desperately tried to climb the walls of the holes, but it was useless. None of them succeeded, and they found themselves falling through a seemingly endless tomb.

Kedri reached the "bottom" first because she was heavier in that half wolven form. She heard a splash and felt wet. When she opened her eyes she saw herself in the middle of a subterranean lake. where she was the water was liquid, but a few feet ahead it looked less liquid and filthy. All of her friends fell too, and Mahatma. Kedri stood up and walked to where she saw dry land and from there she saw that the part where the water was filthy was moving towards her friends.

She opened her eyes widely and screamed at them "HURRY! THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE WATER AND IS MOVING TOWARDS YOU!" Ig, Danitza and Dahra looked around and saw the strange creature... it was just filthy water, but it was moving. Dahra, Ig and Gaarv dragged Planchet and Mahatma to where Kedri was, but Danitza wanted to stay and fight. Kedri went back to the water and put her over her shoulders, in spite of all the arguing Danitza was saying and how she wanted to get down. Kedri wouldn't let her go. They weren't ready to fight such a creature.

- "LET ME GO! I'LL KILL THAT DARN THING!" Danitza argued

- "No, Danitza, to kill that thing we would need fire and we don't even have dry wood around, so forget it" Kedri said "but if you want to go and kill yourself then go ahead, be my guest"

Danitza stopped arguing and they started walking through the border of the lake. It was big to be a subterranean lake, and in the other side they found a group of skeletons hanging cuffed from a wall. at one side of those skeletons there was a table and a group of skeletons were sitting around it, playing cards, they moved as if they were talking, and they had a bunch of keys over the table too. in the floor was lying a whip.

One of the skeletons hunged from the wall moved and one of the ones playing cards stood up from it's chair and grabbed the whip. Kedri and her friends thought the other skeletons were going to come and see them, so they got ready to fight, but their mouths dropped opened once again when they saw that the skeleton approached the prisoner skeleton and whipped him, then he moved his mouth and arms like if he was screaming bad words to him, but Kedri and her friends couldn't hear anything and laughed silently.

They passed the skeletons and the deads didn't even pay attention to the group. Strange, they thought. behind the skeletons was an inscription in the wall... it said nothing in words, but it was a picture carved in the wall of a chest that had legs and was running away from a group of skeletons. Kedri thought it was strange and kept the picture in her mind, but kept walking with the rest of her friends.

At the end of another hallway there were some stairs leading upwards and they climbed. Kedri went first. Probably she wasn't the bravest, but someone had to dare to do things. As she went upstairs she could see light... not like daylight... moonlight. It was dark outside, but at least they were close to the exit! Once upstairs they were in a room that had a door in front of them and a small hallway that lead to the exit to their left. They could see it... freedom...

Wait, not so easy. A Jellow-Cube was in that little hallway, and it was coming towards them. it was big, and they could see what was inside of it: there was a sword and also a shield, but there was a skeleton inside too. For the size of the sword and shield, the skeleton was probably the knight that wielded them. A Jellow-Cube is a non intelligent creature. It doesn't see or hear, but if you touch it you're screwed. it starts to suck you inside him and once you're inside there's no way out because it starts to digest you. A Jellow-Cube is made of stomach juices.

Kedri and Dahra made it fast to the other side of the hall, through the door. Once in there the Jellow cube passed in front of the door.

- "Fiuuu! Just in time"

Dahra nodded and looked around. it was an almost empty room, but there were some swords. They took them. Finally a weapon they could use.

The Jellow cube passed in front of the door again and Kedri and Dahra came out. Their friends and Mahatma were waiting for them. Slowly they followed the cube out, being very careful of not touching it. Planchet made the attempt to do so.

- "Go ahead, please" said Kedri "and you'll end like that one" she pointed to the digested knight.

- "GLUP Nah, thanks" Planchet said.

Kedri nodded.

Out of the hallway the Jellow-Cube melted in front of their eyes. Our heroes were finally free and so happy to be alive. They were in the upper part of a very high mountain... or so they thought, but what they saw was not very encouraging.

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**A/N:** UFFF! Finally I finished. I hope you enjoyed that. Sorry to leave you like this, but as I said to teckwitch, I always try to cut my chapters where I think is the most logical part in order to link with the next chapter, so you'll have to wait for a week to see what Kedri and Co. found out of the dungeon.

(1) Shoni is a tribe of Arborums that are hunters and expert wolf riders. The tribe where Kedri belonged was one of them. Is very difficult to kill definitively an Arborum that has a familiar animal because they're so close to the nature of their animals that when one of them dies the other turns into a werewolf or werebear, depending on the animal they handle, they can change at will from the Arborum or animal shape into wereanimal and they are always rational in this shape.


	4. Chapter 3: Going to Celanam

**techwitch:** Thank you :D I really liked when Kedri was a Werewolf too... more surprises now. I hope you enjoy. By the way, did you get my emails?

**Justintime:** Actually the prison wasn't just a mountain... it was a huge creature and Mahatma was expecting an army. The army did come and kill the creature, that's why it stopped changing, but Kedri and the rest rescued Mahatma before his army could reach them. Actually theescape of Kedritook like 4 hours and after those 4 hours Mahatma's army reached the cells but to their surprise they were already gone, so imagine their frustration. Mahatma is a spiritual leader in Celanam, but the group doesn't know it. Hope you enjoy next chapter. By the way, I'll review you tomorrow. Is late and I have to go for my son.

**Chapter 3: Going to Celanam.**

What they saw when they exited the dungeon was indeed not encouraging. A lot of recently dead bodys were spread through all that side of the mountain, the blood in the floor was almost all soaked by the soil. Maybe Mahatma was right and an army was coming for him…

Kedri transformed to her Arborum form.

The 5 adventurers looked around and saw that they were in some ruins. There was a stone wall surrounding the place, full of dead warriors, there were 2 towers in front of them and what used to be a gate between them, but now the gate was totally destroyed.

Kedri looked to her left and saw a building made also of stones. Surprisingly it wasn't in such a bad state

- "Whoa!" she muttered and headed to the building with Ig following while the rest of the party went to inspect the ruins of the towers.

Inside the building there was a stone wall, and behind it Kedri and Ig found a huge throne, in which was sitting a gigantic skeleton. Forming an arc around him there were lots of skeletons too. The two friends approached in silence, stealthily.The biggest skeleton had a medallion on his neck; it was beautifull and magical. Ig tried to take it but he couldn't. atthe leftside of the throne there was a huge and heavy bow and a quiver of arrows made for it, so they were also huge.

- "I could use this" thought Kedri "although is too big to use it in my Arborum form I can still use it when I'm a werewolf. let's see what else can I find here" she thought with a smile.

- "Why are you smiling?" Ig asked

- "Oh, nothing, I just thought that when we leave I can take this bow and arrows with me. I could use them while I'm transformed"

- "Oh, right"

- "Let's see what else can we find"

- "Oh... I don't know. I couldn't take that medallion and I seriously doubt there's something else" Ig sayed, discouraged.

- "Say whatever you want. I'm still checking" was Kedri's answer. Diplomacy was never her strong point.

Kedri and Gaarv checked behind the throne and Ig followed unwillingly. There was astone in the ground that could be lifted. It wasn't hard to see it and Kedri lifted it.

- "See? Mr. "let's just leave"? there was more" Kedri grinned at her friend.As she lifted the stone, she stopped grinning, and her face changed to a more serious expression. Under the stone there were some scrolls made with copper; they were written in a lenguage that Kedri couldn't understand.

- "Ig" she called him.

- "Uh?"

- "Go get the others... we have something important here"

Ig went outside and he came back with Dahra and Danitza.

- "What does it say here?" Kedri asked and gave them the 3 scrolls. Dahra took them and read in high voice the 2 first scrolls.

- "1º Scroll:" Sayed Dahra (I'll put in italics what the scrolls sayed)_" "Door of Naguc. Search for the old woman and make her 3 gifts and she'll give you the start and the ending of the key". _2º Scroll:_ "Of the first gift: There, where the sea can be seen, look down, inside, in the depths of the stone, in the house of the warrior, search under his sword. Of the 2º gift: And he stood up and looked up to the sky and sayed "You, that have given me these eyes to make justice, have closed them to save my people, well, I don't want them any more" and he took them out"_"

Dahra couldn't understand what the third scroll sayed. When she finished reading she gave the scrolls back to Kedri, who put them inside her arborum cape made of leaves and flowers,and all the group stared at each other. How did this scrolls about the Keys got here?

- "Is like this was meant to happen for years" commented Ig. Danitza just noded.

- "Ok, there's no use to stay here now" sayed Kedri "Where's Planchet?"

- "He stayed out, in the tower of the ruins with Mahatma. He sayed he would make a guard." Dahra answered and Danitza muttered something that none of them could understand, probably in the Sholot lenguage, but it didn't sound like anything nice.

Kedri took the bow and arrows and left the building, and so did the rest of the group.

At the top of one of the towers they saw Mahatma meditating and Planchet waved at them. It was getting very late and there was no use in going inside the deep forest that was in front of them, so they spent the night there, trying to keep warm the best than they could. Kedri checked the bow and arrows. They were of anexcellent quality, but they seemed made for Caons or some tipe of small giant race. they organized guards and went to sleep.

That night nothing happened, and the next morning the7 adventurers (counting Gaarv and Mahatma) started their trip again through the forest that separated them of the city of Celanam. They arrived to a cave and when they tried to go inside and explore 7 men came out to attack the group. Except from Mahatma, all the rest fought the best they could. Kedri didn't need to transform; the fight was really even. 6 of the attackers died and the other escaped to the woods, very injured.

Once the cave was clear of those men, they went inside. At the far end of the cave there was a cabin. it wasn't difficult to get inside and there were many domestic things: tables, pots, ecc... and there was... a chest. Planchet opened it and found a lot of coins. They took all that they could and were about to leave, but Kedri lifted the chest. Under it was a compartment with a book. It was closed with 2 locks and it wasn't a light book. It was heavy and thick. Planchet tried to open it, but he couldn't. He tried again, but still nothing.

- "Ok, Planchet... now we know you're a good thief, but you don't need to spoil the book with your intents. Let's take it closed and I'm sure we will figure out how to open it in the way" sayed Kedri with her usual touch.

-"Hey!" sayed planchet, clearly offended "I'm not a thief, ok?"

- "No?" sayed Kedri, crossing her arms in front of her chest "then who else could open a lock?"

- "I don't know. I'm not a thief... I make... unvoluntary donations, ok?" was Planchet's clearly offended answer, but everyone laughed at him "WHAT! DON'T LAUGH AT ME!"

Useless, they kept laughing.

After al this they started the trip again, this time they arrived to a village that had some huge houses and some smaller ones. At the entrance of the village the group was intercepted by two Caons that were actuallyvery kind. Caons are a kind of giants that are not that big. They grow more less to 3 meters high, they're bald and their skins have a blueish hue. Caons cannot lie and they hate lyers so much that is known in the Geetah world that if you're going to lie to a Caon you'd better kill yourself then because if he finds out your lie he will kill you any ways... so better not.

- "Good morning, adventurers, we are Dahuim and Badim and we need to ask you if you wouldbe so kind of giving up your weapons before entering Celanam?" the Caons asked. Kedri's friends did so. "Thank you" When Kedri gave up the bow and arrows the looked at her, eyes wide opened. "Lady, where did you find this bow?" Kedri told them and asked why "This is a treasure of our race, and so are the arrows." Kedri shrugged and told them again how she found them.

The Caons put the weapons in a warehouse they had near the entrance to the city and wlaked the foreigners inside for a ehile, talking a little of everything. Badim, then, talked.

- "I wonder... if is no bother... if you could give us the bow and the arrows... we could give you 3horses in exchange"

- "Is ok for me" answered Kedri, shrugging "anyways, you say it belongs to your people and I can't use it" she deided to shut up the part of the werewolf. The Caons smiled.

- "Well... where do you need to go now, people?" asked Dahuim

- "We need to find a potion shop" sayed Dahra

- "Yeah, and I need to find a tavern" sayed Planchet, and Ig nodded. While they were roaming the streets together, noone noticed that Mahatma was missing. They all thought that this was his point of destiny and noone wondered where did he go either.

- "Ok" sayed one of the Caons "you can find taverns going in that direction and the lady who makes the potions lives in that other direction" he showed them with the hand.

- "Thank you" sayed Kedri and the group slitted in two. Ig, Gaarvand Planchet went looking for a tavern while Kedri, Dahra and danitza went to the potion shop.

(We'll go with Planchet and Ig first)

- "So... here's the tavern... let's get something to drink, friend Ig"

They both went inside, sat in a table and asked for a lot of Ale. After spending a lot of time in there being idiots, another Caon came to their table and asked if they were havong fun. Planchet didn't have any repair in being even more idiot.

- "Yes, like me with your beautifull sister!" he sayed to the Caon, who happened to be the Major of the village.

- "Really? do you know my sister?" the Caon sayed, not getting the point on Planchet's comment.

- "No, Hic!" sayed Planchet. Ig was starting to get where was all this going to.

- "So... you lied to me?" teh Caon answered

- "No... I mean, it was a joke, man! I never met your sister before!" the idiot answered.

- "So you did lie! Get out with me" the Caon was pissed.

In summary, Planchet was forced to go out and have a one on one fight with the Major of the village. When he was a little injured he asked when the fight stopped and he got an answer "Death fight for lying to a Caon...or you can surrender and be forced to leave this town for ever and never come back" Planchet surrendered and he and Ig had to run away because surrender's not a honorable thing for a Caon and is punished with death. They runned to the potion shop.

(In the meantime...)

Kedri, Dahra and Danitza found the potion shop and knocked the door.

- "We're closed" the voice of an old woman sayed.

- "But we came here from too far away... Mahatma brought us to this town" Dahra answered.

- "Mahatma?" there was a noise of locks unlocking "Come in. Any friend of Mahatma is a friend of mine"

The girls entered and inside they found shelves full of herbs, flasks, potions in languages they couldn't even pronounce, books, pots and a boiling cauldron.

- "Take a sit and tell me what do you need... as you helped Mahatma I'll give you anything for free" the woman sayed and showed them some chairs

- "We just need some healing potions if you can give us" sayed Kedri while she put the big and heavy book in her knees. The old woman looked at the book and runned to her.

- "Where did you find this? It was stolen from me years ago!"

- "We found it in a cabin in a cave. you can have it if it's yours" Kedri sayed.

- "Thank you, thank you!" The woman took the book and opened it without even unlocking, then she put it in the table. "In exchange I'll give you this. Is a powerfull healing potion, but is not complete. I couldn't find the last ingredients" she gave Kedri a big bottle full with a black potion. "Is very bitter, so don't try it untill you have every ingredient." and she wrote the ingredients for her. Kedri didn't read the paper, but she put it inside her pocket and thanked the lady.

- "But we still need potions that we can use right away" Danitza sayed

- "Of course, of course, my honorable Sholot, I'll give you those too" The woman sayed "How many potions do you want? 5? 10? you say the number and I'll get them for you"

- "12 will be fine, dear lady" Dahra answered

- "... aaand maybe you could help us with something else too" Kedri sayed, taking out the 3º scroll and showing it to the woman.

The woman had problems with the small letter, but she read it any ways.

- " 3º Scroll: _"From the sea they arrived, brothers of those who have the Book. They still have her. We must recover her"_ That's what it says" teh woman gave the scroll back to Kedri and all the healing potions. She gave 4 to each of the girls.

- "We'll give 2 to every one of the boys, ok?" she sayed and the rest nodded.

When the girls were about to leave the old woman stopped them.

- "You must find the Lord of All Times. he lives in the Wind Hill, to the west from here, at the other side of the ocean. Have good luck, good ladies... you'll need an exorcist to face the Lord of All Times." Kedri nodded and thanked the woman for all her help and tips.

As soon as the woman closed the door Ig, Gaarvand Planchet came running towards them, breathlessly.

- "We... must leave... I'll tell... you in the... way" Ig managed to say, so they all runned to get their weapons back from the warehouse. The Caons there asked why they were leaving so soon and Ig only sayed that Planchet got into a fight and they needed to leave. The girld almost killed Planchet for that, but they still didn't know what was the fight about.

- "Where can we find a portuary city?" Kedri asked the Caons and they told her instructions to get to the city of Eetchbar

- "That's the closest. Have a nice trip and come back soon" The Caons waved them goodbye and the group left. Ig and Planchet were running very fast and they didn't tell the girls why untill they ste camp for the night.

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**A/N**: Sorry for the delay, It was impossible to update yesterday :(

NOW GO AND REVIEW! Anonymous users are now allowed to review too, thanks to Justintime :D


	5. Chapter 4: KABOOM!

**Justintime:** Planchet was that one. He enjoys to get everyone into trouble, but when the trouble starts he backs away. Anyways he has been, up to now, the comical part of the group. Danitza doesn't like him and she gave him quite a beating, lol.

**techwitch: **Read and Judge for yourself :D

**Chapter 4: KABOOM!**

Planchet had his face all red by the beating Danitza gave him when they knew about the fight he started at the bar in Celanam, and Kedri could barely stop her.

Eechtbar, the filthiest and ugliest city Kedri ever smelled. It was covered by a gray and stinky fog. The small streets are of dust and the big ones are made of stone.The group entered the city at dawnand some of them could barely resist the stentch. Gaarv almost puked as soon as he entered the city and Kedri could barely hold her breakfast in her stomach… and for a lot of reasons.

- "For Tayra!" sayed Kedri in a low voice "Who died here?" when she looked around she saw who.

The entrance to Eechtbar was a high gate in ruins, and at the inside, in the right side there were20 traps.Fifteen of them were busy with a corpse in each one of them in different states of descomposition, going from skeletons and rotten bones untill the last one; the one that was in the last occupied trap. In the last occupied trap, thecorpse had no eyes, the headwas still bleeding and a bird was bitingthe back of it, taking pieces of almost rotten meat. Nice.

The group was recieved by the Pardisan Guard, soldiers of the Vandal Army. They were mounting on their yacs, and as soon as they entered, they greetedthem with a disgust look and grunts.

- "Yeah, I love this city... so smelly" Planchet muttered a liemostly to himself but had to shut up when he felt Danitza's eyes upon him again.

- "Be carefull... Planchet. I'm keeping a close eye on you on this one" she sayed in a very angry tone, remembering the last time Planchet went to a bar. "I'm not leaving you alone so don't even suggest it"

- "Oh, dear!and when I go to the bathroom will you go with me too?" he grinned but the comment didn't make Danitza precisely happy. Dahra stopped her from beating the thief.

- "We don't want problems with the Pardisan's" she sayed, shaking her head.

Danitza grunted something and added "Let's get to a tavern... maybe the smell of food and drinks won't be so disgusting".

The group had to agree. This people didn't even bother in hiding the stench. there were corpses in pikes at both sides of the street and Kedri and Igreally, REALLY missed the forests as soon as they came in.

- "Good evening, travellers" they heard a little voice while they were walking. A boy about 10 years old was speaking to them. The boy looked poor and he had a stick with a bigoxidated nail in it, one end of the stick on the floor and the other in his hand. They looked at him in confusion. "You look a little lost. For a small price I could help you"

- "Ok, boy" startedPlanchet "of about how much are we talking about? we have very litle money"

- "Oh, let's say2 silver pieces each, ok? after all I sayed a small price"

- "2 silver pieces each?... for how long?"

- "2 silver pieces each and I'll be your guide all this day" the group looked confused "Oh, come on! is a fair and cheap price... I can show you all around. I'm the best in my guild!"

- "So... the best in your guild?" asked Kedri

- "Yes, the Guild of Guides of Eechtbar" sayed the boy, his chest full of pride.

- "Well, then... if is such a honour to have the best guide... but first tell me your name" sayed Dahra.

- "I'm Geodaki, but my friends call me Geo" he held up his hand to shake Dahra's and everyone else'shand. Kedri smiled and shook it. After everyone introduced to Geo and gave him the money, Geo asked where did they want to go.

- "No offense, Geo, but this city stinks, so we thought that the smell of food and drinks could distract our noses a bit. Take us to a tavern first, ok? we really need it" sayed Planchet.

Geo looked at the wolf that looked really sick. Ig patted Gaarv's neck.

- "Don't worry, he obbeys only to me" Ig sayed to Geo.

The boy didn't look worried at all.

- "Oh, I don't worry... he's like a big puppy to me."

- "Don't call him puppy or dog. Wolves hate that"

Geo nodded in awe "Sure, how sould I call him, then?"

- "His name's Gaarv"

Geo smiled "Ok... Gaarv... everyone... follow me" the boy took them to a tavern called"The Crimson Falcon" and sayed, looking at Ig"I can take care of the wolf if you want. It'll cost you nothing" he looks at Gaarv and starts petting him as if he knew him all of his life "right, cute wolf?" Gaarv moved his tail, happy. Ig looked surprised.

- "Sure" Ig sayed _"Yeah, right... loyal friend"_

The group went inside the tavern with all the intention to ask about parting ships and taxes. While they were there they couldn't help to notice that there were 2 men in a table. One of them was short but strong, muscular and toughand the other manlooked old and short too. They were talking betwen them and didn't look hostile, like the rest of the men there, and the rest of the tables were busy. Apparently that was the most popular tavern in the city. The group went to their table.

- "Good night, gentlemen " Ig sayed "All the other tables are busy and we wondered if we could sit here if you don't mind."

Both men nodded at the group and the looked at Kedri and Ig, especially, with curiosity. The old man stood up to make more space as the group approached some chairs to the table. He wasn't at all short. He was the biggest human that Kedri ever saw, and he wasn't that old either. Kedri tried to hide her surprise and sat by his side.

- "My Name's Idago de Caluf" sayed the man, with a slight bow " and this is Picuic" he added, pointing to the short muscular guy, who nodded at the mention of his name.

_"Idago de Caluf... Idago de Caluf... the name's familiar..." _thought Kedri _"OH, FOR TYRA!" _Kedri finally remembered and prayed to her goddess _"Idago de Caluf, the son of Idago the Amazing, King of Thieves! This is the son of the biggest thief of all Geetah!... I wonder if Planchet knows it"_ Apparently the thief didn't, because if so then he would have sayed something, but he didn't untill he was in his seat.

- "So..." begun Idago "What brings you, travellers to this cute little city?" Kedri made a pffft sound

- "We came here looking for a ship to travell across the sea. We need to go see someone important at the other side"

- "Then, my fellows, you came to the right place. There are plenty of ships departing tomorrow morning." sayed Idago.

- "We're crossing the sea tomorrow ourselves" added the man calledPicuic "the ship is not the best, but maybe there could be space for 5 more"

- "Actually..." started Ig "We're 6 and a guide"

- "What? are you planning to take Geo with us?" asked Dahra

- "Why not... only if he wants to come" Ig shrugged and Dahra looked away.

And the conversation continued, they ate something with Idago and Picuic and agreed that they would make Geo show them the docks. they spent the rest of the day talking to the captains of the ships and checking the ships and agreed that travelling with Idago would be better than in the other ships. Kedri's eyes shone, but she didn't say anything to the rest about what she thought. She wanted Planchet to realice on his own... if he ever did.

At dawn, geo went home, but first he told the group to be at the dock at a certain time. He wanted to go with them. Apparently he had something to do there too.

They took the same ship with Idago and his friend, put the horseswith the cargoand after a week being in that ship (yeah, with all that it takes... dizzyness, puking and all those tasty and yummy things you get when to get in a ship for the first time in your life.), one morning, they woke up to hear a lot of noise in the ship. The captain and his men were all running with swords and sables. Kedri took her sword and her bow and went upstairs. The ship was under attack.

A pirate ship was not far from the one where they were travelling and several pirates already were on board. The Captain was a fierce warrior when defending his ship and he was fighting along with his men. There was noone who wasn't fighting. Even Geo was fighting. He proved to be the best specialist using his stick with oxidated nail and every strike he made he hitteda pirate. Kedri was amazed on the potential of the kid. She also had to fight, but this time the bow was useless, as the pirates were too close. She had no time to get ready the arrows, so she fought with her short sword. Dahra and Danitza were fighting right at her side, striking and hitting. Kedri had to admit she was not the best swordswoman, but she did her best. Ig, Gaarv, Idago and Picuic were fighting at the other side of the ship. Planchet was trying to keep the ship in course, so he trusted that the captain, who was at his side, was keeping the pirates away from him.

In the meantime, Kedri and the rest were having a hard time repelling the pirates. KEdri wasn't an expert with the sword and the pirates were. She did recieve some hits, just like Dahra and Danitza, but the strikes she did weren't so hard. While she keept fighting the first pirate that attacked her, her friends had already beaten 2 or 3 each. Finally, she killed that one pirate and looked around to see if she could help anyone else, but the few remaining pirates were already leaving. Most of the men were injured, and Kedri felt so useless... she only could kill ONE!

- "Don't worry, Kedri" She felt Ig's hand on her shoulder "You'll do better next time. We could spare together" Kedri smiled and took Ig's word about sparring.

During the rest of the trip they both sparred every day, and sometimes even Idago joined them. After a months Kedri was much better with the sword and much confident and proud of sparring with the great Idago de Caluf too.

After a month passed, the group arrived to the coast and arrived to an Alfon village. That's where Idago and Picuic separated from them. The chief of the village asked them to go to a place and bring them a little something ad he sayed that if they did so they'd get everything they wanted for free.

- "WEEE! FREE WHATEVER!" shouted Planchet "hummm... ok"

The chief of the village looked at him and raised a brow, then looked back at the rest of the group and kept talking.

- "Long time ago we... lost this... errr...rings... magickal rings... in a mountain. The winds there are incredible and as we're so small and light thatwe can't go or the wind would lift us in the air and blow us away..." he looked at everyone, noticing no Alfons in the group "Good, there's noone of my race within you. He won't fly with the wind" Kedri thought they finally arrived to the right place and was eager to meet the Lord of All Times.

They accepted the challenge and the chief of the village showed them the way to a very high and dangerous mountain. They still didn't have an exorcist within the group, so they didn't know what they would do when reaching to the Lord of All Times if so.

They took their horses and started the travesy, first through the woods.

- "RSHRSHRSHRSHRSH"

A strange rumour. Kedri looked around but saw nothing.

- "RSHRSHRSHRSHRSH"

Again, nothing.

- "RSHRSHRSHRSHRSH"

Aaanddd... nothing. Kedri got bored and jumped off her horse and climbed onto a tree. In fact the only one that didn't do that was Dahra. Kedri made a big mistake and she soon realized that, because from over the trees she saw thousand of giant lizards that jumped over the horses and ate them to the bones. Only Dahra, who had stayed on her horse, could save it. She just got him running like escaping from fire and took the horse out of the woods very fast.

It was very slow to travel without the horses for the rest of the group, but they finally got to where Dahra was. She was waiting for them in a road that led to a bridge. The bridge was made of silver and it crossed a deep abyss that would take 2 days to cross without the bridge, and besides they didn't bring anything to climb, so there was no choice but to cross the bridge.

They crossed one by one. Ig and Gaarv crossed first. Ig was walking, not mounted on Gaarv. When they reached the middle of the bridge they were covered by a white fog and untill he reached the other side none of the rest of the group could see him. Gaarv seemed happy, and Ig too. Not understanding, Danitza and Planchet did the same and the same white fog covered them, but Kedri couldn't know if they looked happy or not.

It was Kedri's turn to cross. In the middle of the bridge she was also surrounded by the misterious white fog. She couldn't move as she was totally disoriented. In a moment, a faerie spirit showed in front of her and went towards her. The spirit looked gentle and gently he started taking out all of her clothes and weapons. Without saying a word the spirit started raping her, but it wasn't really a rape, because he wasn't violent. He was, in fact, gentle and soft. After the spirit was done he dressed Kedri again and gave her weapons back, letting her go. Kedri wasn't sure if she liked what just happened or not. Untill that moment she was a virgin and now she was not... confusing.

In the other side of the bridge the road started finally to climb the mountain that the Alfons showed them. It was difficult. They started to walk through it and Dahra couldn't stay on the horse, due to the wind. The road was interrupted by 3 big holes forming a triangle. Dahra, who was leading with her horse, started to go down first with horse and everything, but the horse stumbled and fell. dahra had to let him go so she wouldn't fall too, but it hurted to do so. After her, Kedri and the rest started going down too. With a lot of effort, they finally reached the bottom of the hole. It wasn't dark at all, as it seemed from the road. it was illuminated by a bright sphere and there was also a picture in a wall. That was all that hey found there. Strange, but the horse was nowhere. Everyone but Danitza got raptured by the picture in the wall. None of them could really tell what it was, just that in a part of it there was a bright red and tiny dot.

Danitza, in change, was enraptured by the bright sphere. All her friends were watching at the picture, or so she thought. She turned around to tell them something, but they were not there any more. She saw that in the pic there were 5 bright red tiny dots in one extreme of the pic and one in the other. She shrugged and turned around to see the bright sphere again.

She touched it with one hand and nothing happened. It's heat was... nice... She touched it with both hand and it felt the same. Soft and warm. She lifted the sphere and from the village of the Alfons a great explosion and a thunder were seen.

Then everything was silence.

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Kedri: What? is that all? so we just die in an explosion? YOU SUCK!

Author: What? I suck? Keep your tounge, joung lady or you may feel my wrath!

Kedri sticks her tounge out to the Author: YOU SUUUCK!

Author beats Kedri with her bag with rage: THIS IS NOT OVER YET! YOU SILLY SPOILER!

KEdri bleads: But you sayed that everything exploded!

Author clears her throat after leaving Kedri unconscious and talks to the readers: Ehem! just keep reading, ok? next chapter next week... same site... NOW GO AND REVIEW OR I'LL BEAT YOU TOO!


	6. Chapter 5: Phebas

**Justintime: **Yeah, I liked the rapist faerie too, lol. I hope you like what will happen next

**techwitch:** I'm glad you liked it, I hoped it was funny when I made it, lol

**Chapter 5: Phebas**

Kedri, Ig, Gaarv, Planchet and Dahra felt the nothingness... the experience of death. Danitza was the last one to experience it and she was the only one of the group that felt the explosion. She thought she was really dead, but to her surprise she opened her eyes again.

The room where they were was round and it had 2 doors. Kedri and the rest didn't even dare to move, but Danitza wanted to explore, so she opened one of the doors, the one that was at her left. No one else went with her, so what was inside was only seen by her.

A huge Great Wyrm Red Dragon was sleeping inside of the roop where Danitza had entered. Danitza approached the Great Wyrm to the point that she could feel his hotbreath in her face. She tried to be as stealthy as she could, but tripped over one of the Dragon's claws. The dragon moved and Danitza stood still, hoping that she didn't wake him up.

Unfortunately, he did. When Danitza realiced that her stealthiness was not very stealthy she runned out of the room and closed the door behind her.The dragon looked at the Sholot warrior in silence and let her leave.

- "What's wrong?" asked Dahra as she saw her friend as pale as a Sholoth can be.

- "N-no... nothing" she sayed, trying to regain composture "let's go to the other side"

Kedri tried to look what was inside the door but Danitza didn't let her and pushed the group to the other door. At this point they trusted each other, so nobody tried to look inside again.

When they opened the other door they saw that it lead to a long anddark corridor with another door at the end of it. As they walked through the corridor they looked around very carefully. Suddenly Ig slipped on the floor and that's the first time when someone realized what was in the floor. It was made of Laja stone, so it shouldn't be slippery, but every once in a while they found some very shiny and slippery scales. They started walking very carefully to not fall with them again.

Finally they reached the other door and opened it. At the other side there was a enormous room with all kind of treasures. Everything thatthey could imagine was there, from fabric of all colours to magic wands, rings and coins.

- "WHOAAAAA" exclaimed Planchet in awe

- "Who lives here?" asked Ig, eyes wideopened"must be the richest man in the wholeworld". Even if Arborums don't ambition money this treasure was quite impressive. Everywhere you put your eyes on there was gold or somethingjust asvaluable.

The girls were so impressed that none of them could say a word.

- "Ok" sayed Kedri, finally being able to get out of her entrancement "we have something to look for, so let's get started"

Everyone started looking in different parts of the room. Dahra started searching where the fabric was, Danitza searched in a desk, where there were some scrolls and boxes. Planchet searched in a corner where there was a mountain of coins, putting some of them in his own pocket... to help clear some space for the search, of course, not that he really wanted to keep them... but he did.

Ig started searching between some things that looked like wands and Kedri looked where there were some weapons. She found 2 small wooden boxes and a larger one, but wasn't able to open any yet, because the ground started shaking. Softly at first and then harder. The sound of steps and Danitza went white again. They looked at each other and when the door of the treasure room got opened, Danitza hide under the desk andDahra behind the fabric. Kedri, Ig, Gaarv and Planchet had nowhere to hide, so they just stayed there.

The door got opened slowly and the house owner made his enterance. A HUGE GREAT WYRM REDDRAGON! he didn't enter the room, but his body was big enough to leave no room to escape through the door. He had a walking stick in his right hand,rounded glasses to see better and a small red jacket... he was very well dressed; very fancy and anachronical. He looked around while adjusting his glasses to his face.

- "AAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed, not scared at all "THIEVES! AND IN MY HOUSE!" it was a very old voice. He sighed. "What shall I do?... Ah, well, I'll just eat you!"

- "NO!" screamed Dahra "Don't eat us! We were just looking for some items, but we will leave"

- "Oh, no, you will NOT leave" sayed the dragon "has been very long since I last ate adventurers and I'm hungry" and he looked carefully at each and every one of them, including Gaarv.

- "You'll eat none of us" sayed Ig, unsheathening his sword, but Dahra held his arm so he didn't make any attacks "What are you doing? Let me fight him or he'll eat us all!"

- "No, Ig, don't you see that he will overfight you?" answered Dahra

- "Oh, come on! he's too old, what could he do? he can barely walk so I don't think he can fight!" sayed Ig again. The dragon just looked at him and grinned innocently.

- "Ig, the dragon's power to fight increases when they get older, besides every dragon has some knowledge on magicks, and for the age this dragon must be he must be more powerfull than an archmage! besides, Dragons use breath weapons.Start attacking him right now and I assure you, you will be barbecue!you'd be dead before you could even start your charge at him!" answered Kedri.

- "Aw, a cute little dog!" he sayed, looking at Gaarv,andthe wolfdidn't even dare to growl "I think I'll have this one as a dessert... now let's see who will I eat first..."

- "Don't!" sayed Planchet, darefully,while the dragon tried to decide "Please... we just came because in the Alfon village the chief sayed that you had some rings that belonged to them and he asked us to come and get them back. We just came for the rings. If you let us go I promise you, we won't come back"

The Dragon was surprised by the bravery of the thief. Even or he was too brave or too fool to speak at him freely just like that. He took out his glasses and cleaned them in his jacket, then he put themon again and sighed.

- "Alfons..." the Dragon sayed "They always believe that every magical item belongs to them... well, you'll see... when a magickal item is in the treasure of a dragon it no longer belongs to the Alfons, but to the owner of the treasure. I can assure you that if you ever carry a magickal item and you happen to meet an Alfon he will surely claim ownership on your stuff." he looked at the group again one by one "Ok, we'll do this: you have one hour to make a Rap for me, and if I like it and you make me laugh I will let you leave and MAYBE I'll give you what you want, ok?" And giving them no chance to answer at him he left the room and closed it with key.

- "Aw, great!" sayed Kedri "What will we do now? I'm a terrible singer!"

- "And me? I don't even sing while I'm bathing" replied Ig

- "Take it easy, take it easy" sayed Planchet confidently "Leave this all to me. I may not be a good singer and I know I'm a terrible fighter, but at least I know I can try to help on this"

- "Are you sure?" every one glanced at him

- "I'm not, but I could try, besides... who else dares?"

Everyone shook their heads.

- "Ok, so let me try. You try to make up some dancing and I'll try to come out with the letters" Planchet sitted behind the desk and grabbed some paper when he realiced that he didn't know how to write and started inventing something in his mind.

(After an hour of dancing and argueing...)

Knock, knock

-"Are you ready to sing for me?" the voice of the dragon sayed from the other side of the door.

- "Uh... we guess so" answered Danitza, looking at Planchet. The thief took a deep breathe and nodded to every one.

The Dragon came into the room and took a seat right in the entrance again

- "Ok, I'm ready to listen" he sayed. The adventurers were so nervous.

Planchet cleared his throat and started "mimimimimiiiii" untill Danitza hit him with her elbow. he looked at her like saying "Don't bother the artist!" and started rapping.

_"Once upon a time there was a red Dragon/ he was very distinguished and good looking / he had livedlong yearsand was very powerfull / but in spite of all he had a good heart / and I was lucky to meet him and get out alive._

_The dragon's rap... / the dragon's rap..._

_Let me introduce you Kedri, Gaarv and Ig / they are Arborums and travel with me / Dahra and Danitza are very cool friends / although sometimes they beat me a lot / I'm Planchet and humbly I ask to let us leave._

_The dragon's rap... / the dragon's rap..."_

The group finished the rapping, but really none of them liked very much the song that Planchet made up. They felt so ridiculous dancing and singing rap, but it was worth to give it a try at least. The dragon wasn't very satisfied either. He sighed and rubbed his eyes with his claws.

- "Well, well, well... at least you tried. It wasn't very good but it'll have to do. Nobody will say that I, the great Phebas, am not mercifull, besides... I know about your quest"

- "REALLY?" asked Kedri.

- "Yes, you're looking for the Lord of All Times, right?" Kedri and the rest looked shocked "You'll see... some things do not pass unadverticed to the gods, and I can tell you... before your quest really ends you will become a real pain in the ass and... well, let's not get involved with that. I like you, guys, and that's why I'm going to let you go. You sayed you were looking for something, so... did you find it?" Phebas asked to the even more awed group and they shook their heads. Kedri, however, showed him the 3 wooden boxes she found earlier. "Is that what you were looking for?"

- "I dunno" sayed the Arborum archer while opening them. Inside the smaller boxes there was one ring inside each of them and in the other was a fantastic necklace.

- "Oh, the Necklace of theUnpredictable!" Phebas looked at her "Is this what you were looking for?"

- "No, just the rings"

- "Oh, never mind. I'll give it to you any ways. Put it on, it's yours"

Kedri smiled at Phebas and put on the necklace. It was a beautifull necklace that had 3 shining stones on it.

- "However, be carefull." Phebas added."Two of those stones contain wishes that will come true. You just make the wish very carefully, because it will be literal, but the third stone will give you bad luck, to you and whoever is with you. The only problem is that noone knows which stone makes what. Not even me."

- "And now you tell me" muttered Kedri, not very pleased and hoping she wouldn't need to use the stones on the necklace.

Ig chose a sword and Danitza a buckler. Dahra chose some fine fabric and offered to make Phebas a new jacket like the one he had but ofblue silk. Phebas liked the idea and the group stayed the rest of the day, waiting for Dahra to finish her gift for Phebas. He had been nice and she wanted to retribute. Planchet didn't ask for anything. He had enough coins in his pocket.

When they finished choosing things, Phebas showed them the way out, climbing through a hidden ladder that he had in the rounded room where the group first arrived,but before leaving he gave Kedri a scroll.

- "You will need this more than the others. Keep it and learn it."

Kedri smiled at him and opened the scroll. It was full of different signs. She knew that she couldn't read but she recognized that it was an abecedary in the norvandian language, a language long time lost and any mage and any powerfull person would have given whatever was the most important thing in the world for them to even have the chance to look at it.She looked at Phebas againand thank him, then she put the scroll in her bag anddidn't tell noone that she had that. She noticed that also in the bottom of the scroll was a strange symbol that sayed "Wervener". She didn't know who or what that was, but she thought it was important.

Phebas muttered something like he would miss them while they were leaving, so they promised to come back to visit.

The ladder wasn't long and when they came out of it it was already night, and they were in the middle of a wood, so Kedri started gathering dry wood to make some fire, they ate and went to sleep.

The next morning, when everyone was awake, they found out that Planchet wasn't there any more. Dahra, Danitza, Kedri and Gaarv looked for him all around unsuccessfully. Planchet was gone and left no trace.

- "Maybe he thought he was useless and just left us" sayed Danitza and started crying for the first time since they left the Black Mountain, in Dahra's shoulder.

- "Oh, dear, take it easy. Maybe he just went looking for some water. I'm sure he'll come back soon"

- "No, you don't understand it..." Danitza sayed "I... I mocked him so much... because I liked him... I have to go for him" she sayed and gathering her stuff she runned looking for the thief, to try to make him come back.

- "Well, We'll go in that direction, Danitza! When you find him look for us!" Dahra shouted, knowing that they had no time to loose any more and the group started walking again.

- "I'll g looking for Planchet too, ladyes. Gaarv, come with me, please" Ig sayed and he was really worried for his friends. Kedri and Dahra were concerned too, but the winter was close and none of them wanted to spend the winter in the middle of nowhere.

- "Ok, we'll go looking for some refugee to wait for you, ok?" Kedri sayed.

- "It will be wise" nodded Ig "look for a good place, make some fireand stay there. If I'm notback with youby the morning... do not wait for us"

- "But... how will you find us, Ig" argued Dahra

Ig smirked at her

- "Don't worry. I have my methods"

Kedri knew exactly how were those methods.

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**A/N:** Ok, I know it didn't happen much in this chapter, but in the next chapter I promise it will happen more, and a lot of action. For the moment our friends got a very powerfull ally and he did make them sweat, believe me. Now... GO AND REVIEW! NOW!


	7. Chapter 6: Back on the road

**Justintime:** Thanks. I knew you'd like Phebas. Actually he was not going to eat them any ways... he's... well... I hope you discover, or figure out that the next time you read about him :D

* * *

**Chapter 6: Back on the road**

Ig had gone in search of Planchet and Danitza and Kedri and Dahra found a warm place in some ruins near a river that flowed in that forest. the trees had told Kedri that the place was nice, but they were too tired to continue; they were getting ready to sleep for the winter.

Danitza had found some wood to make a fire, but was very carefull to pick only dead plants and dry wood on the floor... to not hurt her friend's feelings, and they made a fire big enough, although they were not lucky enough to find anything to eat. The noises of the forest were now not the same as the animals were resting in their respective lairs. None of them wanted to leave the other alone to go hunting, because of the posibility of nocturnal creatures nearby.

In the meantime, asmall creature was cold, frightened and alone. He had been walking all day and now was getting late and he was starving. His big ears could hear all the creatures of the forest, but he wasn't used to be for so long in the wilderness. he would have given anything to find somewhere to get warm.

- "Oh, Wyrmirneeds fire..." he sayed to himself, with his weird voice. Alfons were not very fond of living in the nature. They loved to learn magicks and that drove them to be 90 of their time between the pages of books and scrolls, and a forest was not that kind of place.

Suddenly he saw a slight brightness between the trees and approached slowly and silent. 2 females were talking by a fire in the middle of some ruins. They had nothing visible to eat, but at least they were not cold, they had weapons and one of them shone in an ultra violet colour.

When an Alfon saw that colour in someone it meant that somewhere in that person weremagickal items. Alfons are nuts for magicks and they always think that it belongs to them... but this females, whoever they were, were too heavily armoured for him, a small and unarmed alfon. Unarmed if you didn't count the staff in his hand. He decided against taking his chances. He'd manage to get those magickal items in another way.

- "I'm cold. Ineed to go to that fire, but..." the alfon trailed off andthought that the girls wouldn't let him stay with them if he had nothing to offer to them, so he thought on bringing something to eat.

In the Ruins...

Kedri took out a flask that she had and opened it. It was full of sweetened ants. Kedri loved sweetened ants and Dahra didn't even want to try them, but her firend insisted too much so she ate some and found them quite good.

They were talking and having some fun when suddenly they heard a noise and got somewhat paranoids.

Kedri grabbed her bow and arrows and prepared them. Dahra unsheathed her sword.

- "WHO'S THERE!" Dahra cried, but got no answer.

Kedri saw a shrub moving andpointed her arrow at it.

- "ANSWER OR I'LL SHOOT!"

A small creature came out of the shrub, very hesatantly and trembling. Kedri didn't put her bow down, remembering what Phebas sayed about Alfons and magickal items... and she had at least 3 of those.

- "Who are you and what do you want?" she asked.

- "My name is Wyrmir and I... I... I'm cold"

Dahra put her sword down, but Kedri didn't

- "You're here to get my rings" she sayed

- "I... NO! I just wanted to get warm by your fire. I even brought something for you and you thank me saying those lies?" Wirmyr shook in the air a couple of rabbits that he hunted with his own hands. He wasn't a hunter, so the rabbits were stilla littlealive in his hands. Kedri put down her bow and arrow and Dahra stood up.

- "You can come... Wyrmir... errr... we're waiting for some companions to come, but they're taking too long. Give me those rabbits. I'll put them in the fire" Dahra took the rabbits and started taking out their skins, which she left drying. Kedri gave her some species and Dahra put them to the fire. "We will share. You know?" she sayed as she was cooking "You didn't need to bring rabbits. If you wanted to come to the fire we would have let you anyways"

- "I thought it was fair enough" the Alfon answered.

For the rest of the supper they talked and "interrogated" Wyrmir. He had been in the woods for 3 days now because he got lost of his caravan. He was going to the Alfon village to study with a very renowned mage that lived there and he was lost and cold when he saw the camp. They ate everything. They even cut the bones of the rabbit and licked them. It was very little food, but better than nothing.

- "Will we make turns to guard?" asked Dahra.

- "Of course" Kedri sayed "I assumed we would. Who will do the first one?"

Dahra raised a finger.

- "Ok, I'll do the second and Wyrmir the third"

- "MEEEEE?" The Alfon didn't count on that, but Kedri finally convinced him with a harsh stare. "Ok, ok, if you insist I will, but I'm no warrior. If there's trouble I'll wake you up"

-"That's the idea" sayed the Arborum and winked.

Nothing happened while Dahra was on her turn. She woke up Kedri and went to sleep. the turns were long, so they could all get rested, but something happened while the shoni arborum was watching the camp.

Horse sockets... yes, there was no doubt, a rider was getting closer.

- "Wyrmir!" Kedri woke him up "Wyrmir, wake up! someone's comming!"

- "Nah, there's noone. Let me sleep!"

- "No, I tell you, someone's comming. We'd better be all prepared in case is a hostile person..." Kedri bugged him so much that he had to get up, still not believing her. It seemed that only the arborum female heard it.

They thought to let Dahra sleep. They were not going to wake her up unless they really needed, besides Kedri's guard was almost over and it came Wyrmir's turn soon.

Wyrmir was about to go back to sleep when they suddenly saw it. It was a knight mounting a black andreally, really thin (almost skeletic)horse. He spoke in a strange lenguage and none of them understood it, so they decided to wake up the Piggot.

- "What...?" she asked with a sleepy voice, rubbing the sleep off her eyes.

- "Dahra... look" Kedri sayed.

Dahra looked at the knight, breathless at the sight of the painfully thin horse and asked what he needed. The knight answered in the same strange language and Dahra didn't understand.

The knight wore a cape and a helmet, besides of a sword in his back. The hilt of the sword was visible over his shoulder. he dismounted and sat by the fire, took out of his bag a pot that had no bottom and a cup. Incredibly, but with the cuphe took water out of the pot and drank it. to do this, heremoved his helmet. His head was a skull.

Kedri sighed, thinking that she should fight a skeleton again, but he wasn't hostile, so she saw no reason to attack him and just stared at what he was doing.

The knight took out a blanket and covered himself and, apparently, fell asleep. His face looking up to the neght sky.

Kedri stood up and, followed by Dahra, approached to the horse while wyrmir was ready to go back to sleep. The horse was really, almost like a corpse and in his mount was a simbol. three triangles, with the base of them pointed to a center with three small circles inside and at one side of the triangle symbol was a little winged lyon.

Kedri got even closer to the horse and, against all the recomendations that Dahra made, she nibbled him. The Horse seemed to be gratefull, but made no noise, and when Kedri turned to look at the knight again she almost falls to the ground of the surprise, because there wasn't a skull lying there, but a beautifull human knight. His eyes were closed, and he was crying. Then she turned to look at the horse and he wasn't like the one she saw before. It was a beautifull black stallion.

Dahra didn't understand but decided against asking. She touched the horse too and got the same impression.

- "Why would he be crying?" asked the Piggot.

- "I don't know, but I sincerely hope he gets what he needs"

- "Me too".

* * *

The next morning, when they woke up, the knight was already gone. 

Kedri, Dahra and Wyrmir gathered their stuff and went to the river to wash some. Ig, Planchet and Danitza didn't come back, so they decided to do as Ig told them and leave.

- "The city of Hueslat is close in that direction" Dahra sayed, pointing in the direcction from where the river came from.

- "Good, let's go" Wyrmir sayed. to this point the two girls had already accepted him as a full part of their group, but he hadn't given up on getting Kedri's magickal items and every time he asked for them he found himself with a rounded NO and sometimes a fist that never came to his face. She was just threatening... and it worked.

They arrived to a place by the river where there were a lot of birds, mammoths and other animals. Kedri wanted to hunt, but dahra sayed that some plants made fruits there and started searching. Suddenly the animals got alert and silent, the birds flew away and teh animals runned. Even the mammoths.

Before their eyes, tearing down trees and shrubs, appeared, threateninlgy, a huge creature. It hadfour legs, the head of a giant crocodile, scales and the body resembled the one of a snake. It was horrible and huge, but more than that, it was hungry.

Kedri reacted first and threw an arrow at the creature and it hit, but unluckily, the creature had already her sight locked in her. It was too fast and attacked the Arborum, knocking her to the floor. Dahra tried attacking the creature with her sword, but it was useless. The creature already had chosen dinner and started chewing Kedri's legs while she tried to reload the bow. Wyrmir casted a spell at the creature, but she dodged it and kept chewing the poor Arborum, who could do nothing but scream in pain. Kedri dropped her bow to the floor when the creature reached her chest and chew her untillit reached to her head and was about to leave the place.

Dahra was not going to leave it just like that. seing that her dear friend had been eaten by this horrible thing, let out a lowd and long battle cry and charged full of fury. She saw that the weak point of the creature wasit's belly. Seemingly it had no scales there, so she got under it and started slashing it there. Wyrmir didn't want to take many chances, so he kept shooting fireballswith his staff at the creature's face, to keep him busy while Dahra did the rest.

- "HELLISH CREATURE! DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Dahra hitted and hitted that thing in thebelly with her sword, taking herself a bath of blood. The creature couldn't see her, because as it moved to see what was killing her, Dahra moved along. If the creature stepped on her or fell over her she would be dead as well, but she didn't care for that. She kept slashing. She was a killing machine.

The creature's stomach started to move in spasms as if it was going to puke, and it did. Apool of bloodwith a mass ofbroken bones, flesh and gore came out of it.

Finally, Dahrastabbed the creature and when she saw that it was going to fall over her, she put all her strength to push the massive corpse of the horrible thing off her. fighting against the creature's weigth with all her strength and adrenaline, she barely could, but she did.

Her arms ached so much... muscles she didn't knew she had hurted too much after getting done with the creature.

- "Thanks for distracting it, Wyrmir... you proved you're a worthy mage"

- "Not yet, but soon" he sayed. He knew they should be happy for killing that thing, but the sight of their puddled friend wasn't encouraging at all.

Dahra kneeled by "Kedri's" side and started praying to her god and then, for respect of the Arborum, seeded a seed on the ground and made a prayer to Tyra, Kedri's godess of nature and fertility. She didn't know any, so she made it up.

All there was left untouched from Kedri's pukedbody was the Necklace of Unpredictable. It shone.

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A/N: So... you liked it? you missed action and fighting? well... it's back :D I hope you liked it. 

Dahra:( I miss Kedri

Author pats Dahra's back and Dahra looks angrily at her

Author: WHAT?

Dahra: YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN CHARACTER!

Author shruggs: No spoilers this time, my friend. that's the cicle of life, I guess

Dahra leaves slowly:( BUAAAAAAAAA!

Author waits untill she leaves and turns to the readers: Keep reading, that's all I can say for now, and if you don't review now I'LL SEND THE HORRIBLE CREATURE TO CHEW YOU TOO!


	8. Chapter 7: Was it a miracle?

**Justintime: **The author grins innocently, zips her mouth and puts a halo over the horns in her head

**Hyperactivebluechipmunk:** teardrop A new reviewer! Welcome! Where's Yay? Thanks for thinking my story's cool and yes, No-One-Knows is the name of the wolf. I'll send you more explanations on that by email, ok? (it would be too long to post it here) and not all the humans here are mean.

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**Chapter 7: Was it a miracle?**

She was floating in a very dark place. There was no floor or roof; heaven or earth where she was. She was lost but not scared.

In the middle of that darkness where she was floating she saw a very little brightness and for her curiosity, she followed it.

"_Two of those stones contain wishes that will come true. You just make the wish very carefully, because it will be literal, but the third stone will give you bad luck, to you and whoever is with you"_ she heard Phebas words, as a memory. Somehow she also knew that the brightness she saw WAS the necklace and closed her eyes tightly.

She thought about asking to be alive again, but she thought that the puddle she now was could be alive as a puddle, so that wish was discarded. Then she thought to be complete, but then again, the puddle was complete. No parts of it were missing. Then it hitted her.

"_PLEASE… please… I wish… I wish I had my body again. Complete and sane like it used to be before the beast ate me"_ She couldn't think of a more specific way to think of it as she had no voice now.

The stones of the necklace shone in a random way very fast. Kedri closed her eyes, wishing that the stone that the necklace activated was one of the stones of wishes and not the one of bad luck. The necklace was so chaotical that who knows what would happen if the stone of bad luck reacted.

Slowly, she reopened her eyes. The bright light of the early afternoon made her close them again quickly. I hurted to see the sun,but not as much as the rest of her body ached,and she heard noise of people argueing… argueing a lot.

"You're an Alfon of no faith, Wyrmir" Dahra was argueing with Wyrmir about whose god would be better to bring Kedri back from death

- "No, is just that I don't think you're praying lowd enough! How will your god listen!" Wyrmir was smoking from his ears, that angry he was and his face was red as a tomato. The vision caused Kedri to laugh as lowd as the pain that the laughter allowed her to.

- "You'll see… my god will bring her back and then we will see who of us has a stronger faith"

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA!" Kedri managed to seat down, feeling too dizzy to stand up for now "What are you two fighting at?"

Both of them turned around to look at what they thought it was a puddle on the floor, very surprised to see their friend, sane and safe seated, but in her werewolf form.

- "WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Wyrmir screamed as he never saw herin werewolf formbefore, but Dahra hugged her.

- "KEDRI! You're back!"

- "Heh! I never went nowhere, my friend…" Kedri sayed, returning the hug

- "But what the hell are you?" Wyrmir asked, still a bit in shock

- "HAHAHA!" laughed Kedri "My dear sorcerer. I'm a werewolf… an arborum werewolf, why?"she started to look worried, so she stood up and fell again for the dizziness "Am I…"

- "Yes" sayed Dahra "you're in your werewolf form" then she turned to look at Wyrmir, with a triumphant shine in her eyes "You see? I told you my god would bring her back!"

- "What are you talking about?" Kedri looked confused

- "Dahra says you were resurrected with the prayers of her god. I didn't believe her, but maybe she's right" sayed Wyrmir as an apology to the Piggot.

Dahra bowed "You're welcome"

- "Oh, but I…" Kedri trailed off. There was no point in telling them it was for the necklace, in fact maybe there was a little of what Dahra was saying, as the activated stone was one of wishes and not the one of bad luck. The Shoni Arborum smiled at her friends. "I'd say we should leave as soon as possible. I suddenly don't like this place, you understand" they all nodded.

- "As soon as we gather everything, my friend, and you go back to normal size and _"furryness"_" Wyrmirlaughed and gathered all his stuff and Kedri's. After he was done, he looked atthe Arborumagain "Kedri... now that I made you the favour of gathering your stuff... would you give me that beautifull necklace of yours?"

- "HAH! SO THAT WAS WHY YOU GATHERED MY THINGS! YOU WANTED ME TO GIVE YOU MAGICKAL ITEMS!" Kedri screamed at him, really irritated.

The Alfon nodded energically, hissing "yesss, yesss, yesss"

- "NO" she spatted at him "And don't insist or I might forget you're my friend. maybe I'll change my mind and give it to you anyways later, but not if you do things just to get it" Wyrmir frowned and looked to the ground, silently.

The Arborum got up and tried to go back to her normal size and Arborum shape... "AAAAAHHHHH!" the pain was unbearable and she almost passed out. "What's this? I can't go back to normal! Dahra! I can't go back to my regular shape!" Dahra stared at her, eyes wide opened while she tried again, but it was too painfull and she almost fainted again.

- "Don't try it again, Kedri. I don't have to carry you on my shoulders"

Kedri almost started crying for the pain, but then she remembered that in her wish she didn't ask to come back as an Arborum. She wished her body to be complete again; that included the esence of her wolf. She sighed. In the Arborums beliefs if you die you must stay dead; if you're resurrected your soul will never, ever restor havepeace. Kedri knew it and now she had to go on knowing it will be that way... Sometimes you ought to sacrifice something to achieve your goals.

The three friends started the walk again. They didn't talk in the way, but they soon arrived to a fortress surrounded by a two meters deep pit and some huge stakes. Apparently there was no door to get in.

- "HEY! anybody there?" they all shouted to whoever was inside once and again untill a head showed over the walls. That person talked in a very strange language that none of the three understood. It took out a bow and an arrow, ready to shoot and pointed it towards the friends. Wyrmir closed his eyes and started praying. Dahra prayed too. Kedri was scared, but she hoped that Tyra would protect her.

The figure over the wall shoot right in the moment that a giant serpent was going to bite the sorcerer.

They opened their eyes and sighed in relief. while the person started pointing with the bow again and shouted something in that weird language. It sounded urgent.

Wyrmir got over Kedri's shoulders, because he didn't know how to swim. Kedri was taller than 2 meters, so there was no problem and the three of them got into the pit. A small door opened and the people over the wall threw them a rope to climb. Dahra went first; then wyrmir and Kedri went last. They thanked to the people, who of course, understood nothing of what the foreigners were saying.

The guard that helped them up smiled and showed that this was a very friendly town. Even if they didn't understand each other he showed them around. The town was almost a ghost town if it wasn't for a few people that lived almost all in the center of the town, where there was a joung larch surrounded by stones. Kedri tried to get close to the larch, to speak to it, but the guards didn't let her.

That day they spent it going through the town, seing if they could find something usefull. besides a 23 and a half meter long rope they found nothing else. That evening they spent it by the fire, eating with the guards. Kedri saw that there was a bow and she pointed it to them, like asking permission to keep it. It seemed that the bow was of none of them, so the guard motioned her to take it. She took it and tested it without an arrow. Kedri nodded; it was a good bow, and smiled at the guard. Then she looked around to get some arrows, but the guard showed her his almost empty quiver and grimaced.

Kedri saw that there was wood near and there was metal too, so she spent the rest of the night, before going to sleep, teaching them how to make arrows.

The next day, Kedri woke up and she was alone, so she saw the chance to speak to the larch. She touched it and smiled. The tree told her that he was very well taken care there; the humans gave him water every day and that he was there since 10 years ago. _"Where do you come from?"_ Kedri asked. It wasn't a verbal speech. Arborums communicate with the trees in a more spiritual way, so they can collect thoughts and feelings from their vegetal brothers and sisters. _"I come from the woods to the north"_ the tree answered. _"Why are those stones surrounding you, brother? isthis a kind of altar to you?"_ Kedri kept asking. _"I have no idea"_ was the answer.

She stopped talking to the tree when she saw Dahra with the corner of her eye. That's when she stepped away.

- "What were you doing?"

- "I was talking to my brother. We're heading north now. Where's Wyrmir?" she looked around, in search of the sorcerer, and he saw him talking to the guards. thay gave him food and water to help them with the rest of their trip.

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After walking all the rest of the day, stopping only to eat once and collect dry wood, the three friends arrived to a cave. they made a fire and Dahracooked some food. The cave was strange. the walls were not smooth, except in one place, where there was a picture like the one that the "skeletonknight" (like Kedri started calling him) held in his horse. They knockedthat walland it sounded like it was a door, but noone opened. Kedri shrugged resigned; they were going to spend the night there any ways, but Dahra saw that there was a small stone in the floor of the cave, tied to a thin string that passed down the door. She took it and hauled it and a bell rung. Still noone opened.

By midnight the door sounded. Someone from the inside was opening it. A Kaon's head showed out.

- "Come in, come in, fast!" he motioned them to get in.

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A/N: Sorry to leave you here, but hey! at least now you know that Kedri's not dead. I promise you'll have more action and fighting verysoon, ok? now I really need to leave, so...

GO AND REVIEW! NOW!


	9. Chapter 8: Agnes and the Lycan

**JustinTime:** Hehehe... Who knows? I'm twisted, but even I don't know how twisted could that necklace get. The necklace is a very chaotic ítem and noone that doesn't know what does each stone do can control it. In other words, I have a list of at least 10 things that could happen (Sabaal grins evilly)

Now on to the chapter!

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**Chapter 8: Agnes and the Lycan**

- "Come in, come in, fast!" sayed the Kaon, hurrying them to get inside and after closing the door behind them he turned to look at the foreigners. Inside the room there was another Kaon that looked at them and asked "What are you doing here, travellers?"

Kedri looked around and looked somewhat lost in the cave like house of the blue skinned beings untill she saw someone to talk: a small red flower at one side of the entrance door. They were keeping her as a indoors plant and she was not.

- "We were just passing. and looked for shelter in that cave. My name is Tor Cal Dahra, this short fellow here isWyrmir and the one with the plant over her head is Kedri" Dahra introduced them all, but Kedri was not paying attention. She was caressing theflower, entranced.

- "Yes... I see your friend is kind of... busy" the second Kaon sayed pointing at Kedri and showed them where to seat by a table nearby, where there were 2 glasses with wine and 2 empty plates.

Dahra grinned innocently "Heh! And... would you be so kind of telling us your names?"

- "HAHAHA! What's in a name, newcommer? is it really that important? no, I don't think so. Intentions are" replied the firstKaon. His laughter was as friendly as could be having in mind that Kaons don't usually laugh very heartedly."I could never understand what's between some races and names, like if they could tell about people's hearts!"

- "Yes" the other replied to his friend "I can't understand either what's the need of taking a bath or even more... why some people take a bath and then they lay in the sun to get a suntan? I mean, we can still understand that they get on a boat and roam in the ocean to fish, but not the other... is ridículous!"

Yes, the Kaons never took a bath, but in spite of that they didn't smell bad.

In the meantime, Kedri was talking to a small flower that was near the door.

- _"Hello, little flower"_

- _"YAWWWNNN Hello"_ the flower answered, very surprised that someone was talking to her. The Kaons can't talk to plants, so inside a place where Kaons live there's no much talking for a flower. _"Who are you? and how can you talk to me?"_

_- "HEH! I'm an Arborum. Arborums talk to plants. My name's Kedri... is weird to find someone like you in a place like this, were you born here?"_

_- "Oh, no! but I'm here since..."_ the flower thought for a while_"like 200 years, I guess"_

Kedri thought it was strange and thought to herself how often they watered the flower, and with what

_- "Hummm... do this beings give you enough water?"_

_- "Yes, every 3 days" _the flower answered, visibly bored (for Kedri it was visible )

_- "Well, at least they do. I hear them talking about taking a bath and how they think is ridiculous, so at least they don't think is ridiculous to give you water"_

_- "Yes, at least"_

_- "... ... ... where do you come from? I'm looking for the place where the Lord of All Times lives. Maybe you have seen him"_

The flower started thinking again and suddenly she got really desperate and sad

- _"I dunno..." _For Kedri the flower had a really confused and desperated expression. The kind of expression that a person with Amnesia has when they try to remember something too badly and they can't. Her leaves and petals got downfor thedepressionshe felt. _"I... I REALLY DUNNO!" _The flower cried in despair.

Kedri knew just then that she had screwed up the little plant and felt really bad for her

_- "Oh, for Tyra... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel bad! I just wanted..."_ all the while the flower was crying"_Oh, is useless. I'm sorry, dear friend, I never meant to make you feel like this... would it make you feel better if I convinced this Kaons to give you some water?"_

_- "It would help, yes" _the flower sayed between sobs.

Kedri broke the link with the plant to talk to the Kaons and grimaced.

- "Hey! could you give her some water?"

The Kaons, that were talking to Dahra at the moment, looked at her and frowned

- "Is not her turn to get water, why would we water her today?"

- "I... accidentally made her sad and some water could help, besides she's a plant and plants usually need water every day unless she's a plant from the desert... and she's not"

- "Ok, then"the Kaon sayed while he took a glass from a table nearby and started walking. Suddenly he stopped and looked at the Arborum once again, frowning "Are you sure they need water every day?"

- "Oh, most definitely. She told me you water her every 3 days. Every 3 days is ok, but not good enough. Plants feel happy with water" Kedri started nibbling the flower's downed petals once again and told her _"He'll bring water for you. I hope I convinced him to give you water every day "_

_- "Snif! Thanks"_

And she broke the link again, but kept nibbling her.

After the Kaon that went for water came and gave it to the flower, he sat again, took a zip of his wineand asked "So... names don't matter. What are your intentions here, besides of making our plant sad?" Kedri blushed under all that furr.

- "We're heading to see the Lord of All Times" Dahra sayed.The Kaons spitted the wine all over the table (OoO)

- "WHAT? THE LORD OF ALL TIMES? This is a pacific Kaon community. We don't want problems. I hope you don't bring them." they looked at each other "I think we should take them to our leader, brother"

- "Yes, definitely" the other sayed, cleaning the wine as he could.

- "Come with me, please. You" he sayed to his brother "Keep cleaning."

- "OOOOOK"

Dahra, Wyrmir and Kedri followed the Kaon through a stone corridor to a big door. The Kaon knocked it twice and an ancient voice sounded from inside

- "Come in"

- "Sorry, dear Leader, but this travellers ujst came and I think they have something to talk with you" the Kaon sayed as he made Wyrmir and the rest enter a big room. it was not dark, although the walls, ceiling and floor were made of stone. As Kedri went inside she looked around, to recognize the place.

The leader of those Kaons was a very old man. He was bald like every Kaon, but he did have some white beard, his blue skin had turned greyish for the old age and he was sitting in a single chair. When they entered he raised his head to look at them. In spite of his old age he was still a very energic man and his voice, although ancient, was strong and lowd.

- "Come in, foreigners, seat down and tell me what can I do for you?" The old leader looked at the joung Kaon that was with them and dismissed him "You may leave. You can come later for our guests" the jounger nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

- "Well..." Wyrmir started "We came here by chance and... we told your people we're looking for the Lord of All Times" he swallowed saliva. Kedri had always thought her two companions were too direct and self confident to tell things. She'd sure like to keep some things for herself rather than just go around telling to strangers what they were looking for, so she was not looking at Wyrmir in a very nice way right now.

- "HAHAHAHAHAHA! REALLY?" The leader laughed "Only the three of you want to go and face that old Lord? I'd advice you agaist that. Only if you got an army you should go see him."

- "Yes" sayed Kedri, still looking bad at Wyrmir "We have been warned to go with an Exorcist and now with an Army. How encouraging!" Kedri was getting tired of all the warning and still no sign of the Lord of All Times and the sarcasm in her voice was obvious.

- "Calm down, my furry friend" the old Kaon sayed "To find the Lord of All Times you'll have to find first the "Hand of God" Then you will find him" Dahra looked at him in a strange way. Where do you coma from, any ways?"

- "We come from the Black Mountain" sayed Kedri, drily and the old man smiled

- "Then you must have met Mahatma, right?"

- "You seem to know a lot. Yes, and we took him to Celanam, where an old lady gave me this" Talking of having a big mouth... Kedri took out the big black bottle of unfinished potion from her bag. "You wouldn't happen to know where can I find some... blood of a cow that didn't suffer, right? The potion is unfifished and the old lady told me that's one of the ingredients I need to finish it"

- "Hehehe... that's a metaphor, my dear friend, but I'm affraid I don't. I'm sorry." He sayed and after two seconds he talked again "Is late, travellers. You may rest here. Tomorrow you will start your trip again." He reached for his cane, that was resting at his right side and knocked the floor with it 3 times. After a few seconds the Kaon that brought them there appeared through the door.

- "Yes?"

- "Show our guests to their rooms"

- "Follow me" The joung Kaon motioned the group to follow him. Kedri stood up and look at the old man

- "How will we find the Lord of All Times?" she asked.

- "Hehehehehehe... Untill where is it possible to enter the forest?" he just sayed and continued laughing softly.

Kedri smiled _"I got it, old man"_.

The Kaon showed them through the same corridor, two rooms, smaller than the one of the leader, but also made completely of stone.

- "The Alfon can stay in one of this and you two can share this one" he sayed as he left.

Wyrmir sayed good bye to his female friends and got into his room. Dahra and Kedri smiled at sayed good night and entered their room. Once inside Dahra literally fell over her bed and closed her eyes for a while. Kedri sat on her bed too and tried if it supported her weight or not. The bed sounded a little, but it supported her very well. She opened her bag and checked on the two ebony boxes she was carrying; the ones that had the rings that the leader of the Alfons wanted to recover. She opened them and saw two golden and simple bands.

- "What are you doing?" Asked Dahra opening her eyes

- "Nothing, just looking at this"

- "Oh... I'll sleep for a while, ok? I don't think anything will happen to us tonight"

- "Ok. See you in the morning" sayed Kedri, still looking at the rings, not able to take her eyes off them. _"What's so special about you? You certaily gave us a lot of trouble some days ago"_ she thought and without any second thought she put them both on. One in the right hand and one in the left one. At that same instant she felt a rush of strength flowing through her body. It was almost painfull and she got scared, but didn't scream. She didn't want to wake up Dahra. Suddenly the pain stopped and she felt really stronger. It was good! _"I think I will keep you, after all"_ she grinned to herself and fell fast asleep.

Dahrawoke up to the sound of a knockat her door.

- "Hey! Wake up, lazy girls!" Wyrmir was awake for hours and he got tired of waiting. "We're not going far by sleeping"

Dahra woke up first, yawned and stretched. She didn't want to get up. She looked at Kedri, but she was still soundly asleep and snoreing. Grumpily, Dahra stood up from her bed and shook Kedri.

- "mumble... mumble... no, mom, I don't wanna go to school today... mumble... mumble"

- "KEDRI!" Dahra screamed in her ear.

- "YAAAAAHHHHH!" Kedri screamed back at her "GOOD TYRA! YOU SCARED THE LIFE OUT OF ME, DAHRA. What happens?"

- "Time to wake up, sleepy plant"

- "Hey, don't call me that!"

- "Well, you do happen to have a plant in your head, right?" Dahra grinned at her obvious statement. Kedri glared at her angrily and rubbed the rest of the sleep out of her eyes. Kedri slept dressed, and so did Dahra, so they didn't need to waste timein getting dressed and they hoped Wyrmir wouldn't want to stay and have breakfast.

He wanted, but the girls wouldn't let him, argueing that he was the one that sayed they shouldn't loose time sleeping, so that applied to breakfast either and dragged him the outside(Wyrmir's crying ´)

- "Be carefull with the shadows, thieves, burglars and with what you think" The Kaons sayed as they sayed good bye "The Lord of All Times has thousands of sons, all of themlook just like him, and he lives among them"

- "Thank you. We'll keep that in mind"

- "Before you leave,"The old Kaon was there, surprisingly "Could you give me the recipe of the black potion you showed me last night?"

- "You won't keep my bottle, will you?" replied Kedri

- "Oh, no. I just want the recipe"

- "Fine, then. The Old lady sayed I had to solve this potion with some grain, dill and the blood of a cow that didn't suffer to have a really potent healing potion" The old man smiled, thanked her and left, back to his room again.

- "Oh, by the way," Dahra sayed before the old man left " In our way here we found a knight. It was a skeleton" The old Kaon stopped and waited "he was riding a horse and he had a symbol, it was the same symbol of the triangles you have at the entrance to this place..."She didn't finish the sentence.

- "Yes, that's a Fallen Errand" He interrupted the Piggot and walked away.

With that good bye from the Kaon community, Kedri and her friends started their trip to the north again, througha now snowy road. After a while they saw a caravan that was destroyed at one side of the road, but it didn't happen recently; the horses's corpses were rotten.

Dahra inspected what was left and found a vase that Wyrmir inmediately took for him, greedily (surely it was magickal) and along arrow made of steel, just like the ones that Kedri found in the room outside of the Black Mountain; the one that belonged to the Kaons, and thought it was related to the Kaons of Celanam. She remembered the incident with Planchet in that city and related it to Wyrmir.

- "Let's just be carefull, ok?"

- "Maybe they already forgot. I wouldn't worry" Wyrmir shrugged

- "Kaons have a fantastic memory, Wyrmir. I would worry" Dahra added while looking around.

Kedri noticed too that they were in a peumus wood and she touched one.

- _"Hello, my dear tree"_

_- "Yawwwnnn! hummm... hello... what is it? I wanna go to sleep"_

_- "Oh, I'm sorry. This won't take long. I just wondered what happened here?"_

_- "I don't know. I have been here for 50 years and this was here before me"_

_- "Oh, thank you. I'm sorry and now you can go to sleep" _Kedri smiled. Those Kaons weren't anywhere close. "We can breathe in peace now. This has been here for more than 50 years. Give me the arrow, Dahra. Maybe I could give her some use"

Dahra did as she was told and they kept going. In the way they found a decapitated deer in the snow. The view was gross, but as it was comming to dawn and they didn't have any food they cut a leg of the animal to eat it later, when they set up camp, but the blood of the deer made a visible trail and it was fresh. They followed it to a cave. They had to follow because they couldn't see the road now. Kedri and Wyrmir went inside, to inspect if it had inhabitants. Dahra stayed outside, to guard if anyone came.

Red eyes looked at them from the inside. Wyrmir didn't notice them untill Kedri grabbed him by the waist and runned like if fire was chasing her to the outside.

- "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! DAHRA! A TROLL!" Kedri cryed to her friend who immediately got her sword ready to fight the beast. As soon as they left the cave, Kedri put Wyrmir on the ground and stepped behind a tree, bow ready to shoot. The mage started preparing a spell.

The troll came outside and growled to the Piggot and slashed at her head with a claw, but Dahra dodged just in time. Words in a strange lenguage came out of Wyrmir's mouth, but the spell wasn't ready yet.

Kedri took out one of her arrows "DAHRA, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" she sayed just when she dodged the troll attack, leaving the way clear for the arrow and she shoot a beautifull, clean shot to his arm. The beast growled in pain, but kept attacking. It seemed that instead of making it get away her shot just made him more angry.

It was Dahra's turn to slash and she aimed for the troll's stomach, but missed too. The troll slashed back at her with his other arm and this time he did hit her in the back, making her fall face flat to the ground. Kedri shoot again and hit his stomack, but again the beast got even more upset. He saw the archer. H runned to her, showing he was stronger than what they all thought. Dahra was having problems to get back on her feet, but she managed to roll out of the troll's way before the heavy thingstepped on her and slashed his toe, but he didn't even notice the cut and kept running for the archer, who was preparing her third arrow to shoot. This time he was too close and didn't give her any time to point it where she wanted, so she had to shoot wherever the arrow wanted to hit him. The arrow seemed to want to hit the wall behind the troll.

- "WYRMIR! FAST!" she screamed as the troll reached her and tried to aim at her. The Alfon started chanting higher, to make it obvious that he was about to finish. "Oh-oh" Kedri sayed _"Damn! He's going to shoot a slim! I have to get away of the troll"_.

- "GET A TASTE OF MY SLIM, BEAST!" Wyrmir screamed at him. A huge ball of transparent, flammableand sticky slim of about 7 feet high came out of the small and mage's hand. Having in mind that he was only 3 (or something) feet tall it was a huge thing. The troll turned around in surprise to look at the mage that he had dismissed before for considering him inocuous right in the second that the sticky huge ball hitted him with strength, leaving him trapped inside of the flammable substance. Kedri had stepped back just in time to not get sticked and was paler than usual. She and Dahra had their mouths dropped in awe. Both of them knew the slim is the most powerfull spell known in the world of Geetah and their friend could use it.

Wyrmir approached the trapped troll and smiled. He looked really tired. He motioned Kedri to step back and managed to make a fireball to hit the slim ball with the troll inside.

- "Bye... bye... troll" he sayed and fainted, but never hitted the ground. Kedri took him before.

Kedri looked at Dahra with the alfon in her arms

- "He's alive; he just used too much mana at once. I think he'll be fine. Let's find a place to rest, ok?" the Arborum sayed.

- "How about the cave? and we will need wood to make a fire"

- "Sure. I'll get the wood. You take care of him and cook the deer, ok?"

Dahra took Wyrmir's body and went inside. Several hours later, it was already night and they all ate with a warm fire, leaving their stuff behind a shrub that was inside, they set the guards and this time Kedri took the third.

She was sitting, looking at her new rings when she thought she heard something comming from the shrub, she looked and... the shrub moved! she took her bow and prepared an arrow to shoot at whatever was behind the plant.

- "HOLD ON THERE! Show yourself or I'll shoot you"

- "Noooo... please, don't kill me" the voice of an old womanbegged and her head looked at Kedri from one side of the bush, using it still as a shield

- "Leave whatever you have taken from us right there and come out" Kedri demanded

The old woman left everything in the ground.

- "Please, let me keep this thing... please" she showed kedri what she was holding in her hand. It was one of the little now empty wooden boxes that had the rings that Kedri had in her fingers. Kedri was intrigued.

- "No, leave it right there"

- "Please... I found it... it was there and I found it, so it's mine" she begged so much that the archerthought it wasn't harmfull if she let her keep it. "I found it so it's mine"

- "Ok, ok... come over here, take a seat" Kedri, defeated by the old lady's begging. The woman approached her as soon as she dropped the bow andput the arrow back in her quiver. She had a huge pack on her back, surely filled with all sort of things, it was so full that she had to tie some things to the outside of it. All that kedri could see was a pot, some cups,somebig spoons that she surely used to cook and well, all sort of things for the kitchen, but the bag was full of things."I'm Kedri. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

- "I'm Agnes and I'm just travelling" she sayed as she sat down by Kedri's side and put the little box inside her bag."Do you want me to give you something?"

- "Do you have a pot?"

- "Yes, what for?"

- "To cook grain, of course" Kedri answered and Agnes opened her eyes wide

- "NO! It hurts to the grain when you cook it!"

- "Ok, then to boil water. I'm cold."

- "It hurts to the water when it evaporates." she explained "Are you cold?" Kedri nodded at this question.

- "Ooooohhhhh... cold..." she sayed and it started snowing INSIDE THE CAVE! then she took out of her bag a teapot, made tea and served it in two cups. "Are you lost?"

- "No"

- "Where are you going, then?"

- "To the north, to see the Lord of All Times"

- "And you know where to find him?"

- "Yes, in the Wind Hill"

- "And do you know where the wind hill is?"

- "Yes, to the north"

- "But exactly... where?"

- "No, I don't know that" Kedri answered, not understanding why this woman was interrogating her so much.

- "Then you ARE lost"

- "NO, I'm not!"

- "Yes, you are. You don't know where you're going so you must be lost" Again, Kedri was defeated by her insistence.

- "Ok, yes I am lost, you win"

- "WEEEHEEE! then you're mine. I found you, and your friends are mine too!"

- "Well..." started Kedri even more confused now, but then she laughed wholeheartedly"I AM your friend, yes... if that's what you mean"

- "Friends give things to each other"

Kedri smiled. Agnes was the strangest being she had ever seen but she was starting to like the old lady, whose race was uncertain. She looked like an Alfon, but she couldn't tell really and for courtesy she wasn't going to ask. She remembered what she sayed about the grain being hurten and she took some of the grain she was carrying herself in her bag and gave some to Agnes.

- "What's this for?" Agnes asked

- "You sayed that the grain was hurten so you must appreciate it, right?" Kedri sayed. Agnes smiled and took out one of the bigwooden spoons that she carried and gave it to Kedri. Kedri accepted the gift and put it in her bag.

- "I'm friend of Nobody. He sleeps under the earth..." Agnes sayed, like absently Some day you'll meet him." she looked at the arborum lycan "did noone in your village ever shaved? I mean, you're really furry..." Agnes looked really concerned for that.

Kedri bursted out in laughter and started telling her the story of her life, since when she had to exit her village and the fire in the forest to the part when pelavin captured her and killed her wolf companion, No-One-Knows.

- "Does that hurt?" Agnes asked when she finished the story "because if it does I can help you"

- "Can you?" Kedri was surprised and excited for that. She wanted really badly to recover her arborum shape.

- "Sure I can!" Agnes took a small knife out of her contain-everything-bag and a seed and gave it to her "Make a hole in your arm skin and put the seed inside it"

Kedri distrusted her for some reason, but did as she was told. Her appereance couldn't be worse so she didn't care of what happened. She did a small cut in the skin of her left arm and put the seed under the skin. To her surprise the seed started to dig inside her arm so quickly that when she reacted the seed already had disappeared in her flesh and she didn't feel it any more. Agnes was grinning.

- "What did you do to me, Agnes?"

- "Nothing! you did it yourself!" she served her and Kedri another cup of tea and they kept talking about trivial things and knowing each other. Agnes was some sort of healer mixed with other things that came from a city very far to the north and she had been travelling for quite a while now. She had met many places and people, and her bag was full of all sorts of things. After a while of talking and drinking tea with her new friend, Kedri started to feel drowsy. Her guard wasn't over and she felt like she was falling asleep. She tried to fight the sensation and shook her head andwashed her face with cold water a few times, but finally she couldn't fight it any more and fell fast asleep.

* * *

A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERY ONE! I hope you all had great holidays, so this is a special long chapter, as a gift for all of my readers. 

Did you like it? I really hope so, because I have been 2 weeks working on it!. So, what do you think will happen to Kedri? and what do you think of Wyrmir now? I want to know what you think, so...

GO AND REVIEW OR ELSE I'LL THROW YOU ALLTO THE OCEAN WITH A KRAKEN!


	10. Chapter 9: The Guardian

Justintime:Sorry for the delay, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Yes, Agnes is cool, and now you'll find out what she did to Kedri.

**Chapter 9: The Guardian**

Kedri was asleep... deeply asleep and she didn't feel it. A mammoth could have walked over her and she wouldn't have felt it.

- Kedri... A voice was calling her, but she couldn't determine where it came from.

- Kedri... The same annoying voice, when would it stop calling her? She just wanted to sleep!

- KEDRI!

- WHAT! - She punched something and then opened her eyes. Dahra was there, on the ground, nibling her face with her right hand. Kedri had a good aim on her pretty face and it did hurt.

- OUCH! WHY DID YOU DO THAT!

- Oh... sorry, I thought I was just dreaming

- NO! I was trying to wake you up, because Wyrmyr can't even get close to you!

- He can't? but why...? It was then when she heard it. It was a familiar sound... it was close and angry... it was... a... growling? Kedri's eyes grew wide opened when she realiced and turned around slowly to see that Wyrmir was cornered against a wall of the cave by a big, angered grey wolf that was growling and barking at him while he was saying sentences like "Take it easy, cute doggie" and things like that, only making the wolf even more and more upset. Yes! it was a growling!... a familiar growling... It was...

- NO ONE KNOWS! - she cried as she jumped from where she was laying on the ground, with tears of joy running down her face and runned to hug her dearest friend tightly while still crying. It was the first time she ever allowed herself a little weakness like that, but she didn't care. Her best friend ever was back from the dead and nothing else mattered to her now.

- What in the... - Dahra interrupted herself when she saw that Kedri would not pay attention to whatever she sayed and looked at her in confusion, and so did Wyrmir when they saw the Arborum girl kiss and hug the wolf tightly instead of just killing him. - Oh! I missed you so much! I can't believe you're back with me!

- Kedri continued crying without listening or looking to her other friends. She was just too happy to listen.

- THANK YOU, AGNES! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID BUT THANK YOU! - she started playing to mount and run with the wolf while he growled friendly and licked her face once and again. Dahra and Wyrmir just looked, mouth and eyes wide opened.

- But what the hell's going on? - asked Wyrmir after a while

- Oh, sorry - Kedri finally answered - Let me introduce you to my best friend. Dahra, Wyrmir... this is No One Knows, my wolven friend.

- But... if he's your friend, why did he attack me when I approached to you? he was lying by your side when I woke up and I was just going to wake you up, but he wouldn't let me. BAD DOGGIE! - he sayed at No One Knows and the wolf growled at him angrily again.

- Don't call him that! he hates being called doggie. He's a wolf, call him wolf, not dog. Is denigrating. He attacked you because he didn't know you, besides you're always bugging me to give you my magickal things and that also could have bothered him. Dahra doesn't do that, that's why he didn't attack her.

- But how could he know that! - Wyrmir answered.

- Well... do you remember that I transformed into a werewolf? well, when an Arborum is born they get an animal friend and they're bounded for life, so when the animal dies the arborum absorbs it's essence and becomes a shapeshifter. The same would happen if the arborum dies and not the animal... the animal becomes shapeshifter.

- Yes, ok, but how is it that he's here now? - asked Dahra and Kedri talked to them about Agnes's visit last night. None of her friends was very happy when they heard she got asleep during her guard, but the discussion didn't go on because of an upset No One Knows looking and growling evilly at them. Of course she didn't tell them what was Agnes doing when she found her rumagging through their stuff.

- Ok, well, I think we should eat something and move - sayed Wyrmir and started looking through his things too see if he had something to eat and he realiced there was nothing.

- And exactly what will we eat, Wyrmir? WE HAVE NO MORE FOOD! - Dahra yelled, loosing her usual composure to a growling in her stomach. Just then Wyrmir and Kedri's stomach also growled and No One Knows lied at his friend's side, closing his eyes and letting Kedri pet him for a while. Dahra looked around and saw a teapot, the one that Agnes had before, and a wooden spoon and grabbed them, but dismissed them immediately because they didn't even have any water.

Kedri looked at the teapot and the wooden spoon and smiled to herself. Quietly, she took them and kept them. "I guess this is another gift from Agnes, hehehe " She thought. Soon they realiced that the food wasn't the only thing they didn't have.

- "MY MAGICKAL CUP! IT WAS IN MY BAG AND NOW IS GONE!" - exclaimed Wyrmir when he saw that one of the few magickal items he had was gone and gave Kedri a murderous look, after all she was the one that stayed asleep during the guard. - "YOU! IT WAS YOUR FAULT! I'LL KILL YOU!" - he screamed at Kedri and grabbed her arms and shook her untill Kedri got dizzy. The only reason she didn't puke was that there was nothing in her stomach. Just then a slight bite in the ankle remembered Wyrmir that shaking Kedri was, probably, a bad idea. He looked at the wolf biting his feet and smiled nervously - "Hehehe... nice doggy... I mean, wolf!... nice wolf! Hehehe..."

No One Knows didn't like being called "doggy" and started growling at the Alfon, but as soon as he corrected himself, the wolf stopped, contented. Wyrmir's cup wasn't the only missing thing. Also the big, steel arrow that Kedri had and one of her ebony boxes were missing, but she thought that the teapot and wooden spoon was enough payment in exchange of 2 things she would never have a use for. "Hehehe... She "found" them, hehehe"

Kedri checked all her stuff, to see what did Agnes not "find" and she found that she still had: 1000 Copper coins, 139 Gold coins, a scroll to invocate a beast that was usefull to call a giant spider (she thought she would give that to Wyrmir later if he was nice to her), 3 magickal ring, a chainmail shirt, a quiver with 34 arrows (20 of them were not very good, but still usefull to hunt, she thought), the wooden spoon and teapot that Agnes left, the necklace of unpredictable, with the wish already spent,1 ebony box, her sword and bow, the black potion, seeds, grain and 23 1/2 mts of rope. After checking all her equipment, she got ready to leave and hurried her friends.

- Ok, where should we go now? - asked Wyrmir while Dahra was looking to the floor, searching for any footprints or something.

- Look! - She sayed – This animal footprints in the snow... I think they go to South-east! - when she realiced her friends didn't know what was she talking about she added - from North-west. We're travelling to the north, supposedly, right?

- Oh, yes - sayed Kedri - so let's go there. North-west it is, then. Maybe we can find our way to the Lord of All Times somewhere to the North-west. As they were walking, they noticed that the forest got thinner every step they took untill they found themselves out of the forest.

They found a totem with the base buried into the soil, with a skull on top of it and a lot of drawings on it. It also had feathers, but no particular signs of any culture, god or godess... or at least none that they could see, but they were getting too far from the forest. The forest, in a way, represented some security and getting away from it gave them the sensation of being too visible and unprotected, so they went back to it and kept going to where they thought it was North. They were still hungry, so Kedri and No One Knows tried to hunt something... anything.

- Ok, wait for me here. I'll try to bring something for lunch - but the cold and hunger made the Arborum miss each and every shot she made. In her despair she climbed a tree, at least to see where she was. Nothing, she only saw trees, but at a still far distance she could see a group of trees that was higher than the rest. When she finally got down, she saw something in the trees.

- MUSHROOMS! - There were a lot of them in the trunks. How couldn't she see them before! she checked if they were poisonous and they were not, so she took like 3 kilos of them and took them to Dahra and Wyrmir, feeling very happy.

- What's this? - asked Wyrmir while taking one of the mushrooms with two fingers and making a "yuck!" face. This Alfon wasn't very instructed botanically.

- Mushrooms - answered Dahra, who didn't also know too much of the forest - but what did you bring them for?

- THEY'RE EATABLE! I'll cook them for you! You'll see... they're better than meat and more nutritive! - Saying this she started gathering wood while singing in a low voice and cooked. Even No One Knows was so hungry that ate them, and everyone liked Kedri's cooking. She wasn't so bad cooking mushrooms as she was cooking meat after all.

They kept walking after eating, and all the way they found some of the same totems. The wind was getting stronger with every step they gave, and thus, the next totems didn't have the feathers of the first one, but besides that they were exactly the same and they all had skulls. They shrugged and kept walking.

- Now I'm sure! - sayed Kedri to her friends - When I went hunting I felt so desperated because I missed all my shots that I climbed to a tree to see if there was any creature near, but I saw a group of higher trees to the north. We're getting closer to the Wind Hill, home of the Lord of All Times! The wind will be even stronger when we get there. We must be prepared! - she added before Wyrmir asked the stupid question that he was thinking (the "How do you know?" question)

They arrived to a lake. It was a beautifull lake, with clear green water and a small beach all around it. Dahra collected some wood and made fire while Kedri tried to catch a fish, but to add to her bad luck, they all suddenly fled. The Arborum didn't insist and used the fire only to warm a little. They started walking, following the border of the lake untill they reached a point where there was a thin stream that finished in the water of the lake. It seemed that it came down from Hueslat. Farther, there was another one and very close to the second stream there were some beautifull eggs, bigger than all of them. They were of a beautifull blue colour, with an oval shape and were resting over a gelatinous substance that also covered them. Dahra wanted to touch them and after she did, she walked to the border of the lake, where she found a scale very diferent to the one she found from Phebas, although just as hard. It had a long point comming out from the center of the scale while in the borders there were two smaller ones, besides it had a blueish hue in the colour. Kedri's stomach growled.

- Hey! Why not eat one of this eggs? - asked Wyrmir - This nest looks unwatched

- Are you crazy? look at the size of this eggs! The mother must be huge! - answered Dahra.

- Besides is very probable that the mother is close and may be back at any minute - Kedri nodded and No One Knows smelled the eggs.

- Oh, come on! She won't notice one missing egg! - The Alfon replied.

- NO, WYRMIR. DON'T INSIST.

Wyrmir insisted and insisted once and again untill he realiced his friends weren't even pying attention to him any more.

They were looking to the skies. There, in the highest branch of the highest tree, a couple of red eyes were watching intensively.

A/N: PFIUUU! Finally! It seemed that everything was against this chapter. First, I moved to a new house with my family, then my vacations, then the computer didn't work, then it had a password and today finally! By the way, sorry for the poor editing, but this browser is old... it was the only thing I could get, Buaaaaa!

No One Knows: GRRRRRRRRRR

Author: No, really, don't look at me that way. No one more excited to finally bring you back, my dear.

No One Knows looks at Sabaal murderously

Sabaal has an anime teardrop: Nice wolf, nice wolf...

Sabaal talks to the readers: I hope you enjoyed my return. Now please review or I'll stop feeding No One Knows and lock you with him in a room with no window and swallow the key!


	11. Chapter 10: Coicoi

**Justintime:** Thanks for the suggestion. Finally I could update; I'm on vacation for a week and I hope you enjoy this.

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**Chapter 10: Coi - Coi **

A pair of red eyes were observing them intensively... expecting any hostile move from the heterogeneal group of adventurers down in the floor, but those humanoids seemed frozen. They seemed too small to be humans. Intrigued, the creature flew down.

Whatever that was, it seemed to come down flying from the observation point in the upper part of the tree. Strange enough, but the creature had no wings. The creature surrounded them with her body. It was huge, like 100 feet long, and quite reptilian, but she still was smaller than Phebas, besides her body was of a blue colour and covered with brilliant scales. It was a giant snake, a Great Wyrm too, just like Phebas.

Kedri, Wyrmir and Dahra were frozen and whispered as they saw the creature comming down.

"What's that?" asked Kedri to the Wizard, but he just shrugged

"I don't know. It does look like a dragon, though."

"No..." whispered Dahra "It looks more like a... a giant snake or something. Maybe is a dragon of the water."

"Probably" whispered Wyrmir.

Kedri looked at No One Knows, who was whining and didn't dare to move a muscle. His ears and tail were down in a submissive way, completely scared. Kedri patted his head to calm him down, but it had little effect. The wolf was terrifyed.

After having the group completely surrounded with her brilliant reptilian body, the creature looked at them again and a bifid tongue came out swiftly from her mouth, looking directly at them it took a deep breath and spoke with a whispery voice.

"Annnddd... who exssactly are you?"

Kedri wanted to look nonchalant and answered

"Adventurers"

"We were just passing by" started Dahra, who was the only one that could actually say more than one word in that moment, in spite of the fear "We have to accomplish a promise."

"Aaahhh! A "promissse"..." The snake like thing hissed and seemed to be thinking for a while "What isss a "promissse"?" it looked directly at Dahra now.

"Is when you say you're going to do something, then you have to do it" explained Dahra.

"Then I "promisssed" to take care of thisss eggsss..." it didn't take her eyes off the adventurers and continued "Noone ssstaysss here for too long. Everyone passsesss and tryesss to eat thessse eggsss, but I have to keep my promissse, right?" The trio nodded to the snake "I can't let anyone eat the eggsss. I... "promisssed"." She made a long pause before continueing "All the time, when sssomeone comesss to thisss place, they attack me... I don't know why, but isss alwaysss the sssame. They alwaysss attack me, they alwaysss try to kill me with their weaponsss. Alwaysss "Kill the sssnake! kill the sssnake!" and I have nothing against them, but... I have to defend myssself.. Would you let anyone jussst come to your houssse and kill you?" she asked and the three of them shook their heads at the same time. She made a pause, like she was remembering something. At this point she didn't see that these adventurers did have weapons too. "no, right? That wouldn't be niece. The last one wasss tasssty, although it'sss armor wasss very hard and it'sss ssstill between my teeth."

"Doesn't it bother you?" sayed Kedri, finally and Wyrmir hitted her slightly with his elbow "What? I'm just asking!"

"Oh, yesss, a lot, but I can't take it out. Who did you make that "promissse" to?" she asked in general.

"To a boy and a dragon" answered Dahra.

"Interesssting... what isss a "boy"?"

The three of them smiled at this question, but none dared to laugh.

"Let's see..." started Dahra and thought for a switable answer, but Kedri decided against all the bullshit and paraphernalia and just answered straight.

"A boy is a humanoid cub, ok?" She decided that takl to the snake creature with few words was better, besides she was familiar to the way that animals communicate. Dahra looked at her with fear that she might have sayed something worng, because the snake looked at them with a question in her eyes, but then the snake nodded.

"Oh... I sssee..." she looked at them with hunger.

"Do you know the dragons?" asked Dahra, who noticed her look and tried to distract the snake.

"Yesss... they're like far away cousssinsss. They have beautifull and huge wingsss, lussstrousss ssscalesss, big hornsss and beautifull eyesss, not to mention that mossst of them can ssspit fire and other thingsss. Why do you asssk?"

"Oh, for nothing," started Dahra and tried to appeal to the snake's vanity "is just that we thought that you were one of them."

The snake seemed flattered and glad for what the piggot girl sayed.

"Really? Isss that ssso? isss it true that I, Coi - coi, am that beautifull?" she seemed surprised, but flattered. "I'm a sssnake, not a Dragon, but thank you"

"Oh, yes" sayed all of them at unison and smiled, thinking that the snake wouldn't eat them now.

"THANK YOU! Now I'll be more happy when I eat you all!"

"NO! no!" started Wyrmir "wait a minute, let's make a deal." Coi - coi listened at him intently, and so did Kedri and Dahra, that couldn't figure out with what he'd come out next "We can work this out. Why don't you eat only Kedri. She has a wolf, so if you eat her and her wolf you can let us go" and he pointed towards Dahra and himself. Kedri, No One Knows and Dahra looked at him murderously. The truth was that Wyrmir wanted the snake to eat Kedri because he wanted to keep her magical rings and all her magical stuff. Coi - coi seemed to ponderate this for a few seconds.

"I'll deal with you later" muttered Kedri to Wyrmir, with a calmed tone that unsettled the wizard and made him go pale.

"Mmm... nope, better not." Sayed Coi - coi, who seemed to not have heard what Kedri just muttered at the Alfon "all of you are very sssmall, and if I only eat one I'd ssstill be hungry. I'll eat you all."

"NO, WAIT!" Kedri suddenly cryed, with a new idea. Wyrmir was affraid that she was going to say to her that she could eat him as her first snack to look for a way out. "Why don't you let us deal with that little problem of yours... you know, that armor between your teeth? We can take it out using Dahra's sword..."

Kedri couldn't finish her sentence.

"YOU HAVE A SSSWORD! YOU CAME TO KILL ME TOO! YOU LIED TO ME!"

Dahra gave her a murderous gaze.

"No, we didn't come to kill you, calm down, calm down. If we wanted to kill you we would have attacked already, take it easy." Kedri tried to fix it, and even when Coi - coi still looked wearily at her, she let the Arborum finish her proposal. "I was saying that we can try to take that armor out of your teeth so it doesn't bother you any more, that's all. We can use the weapons as tools to take it out..."

"But if you hurt me I'll eat you." stated the snake, finally understanding.

"Well... we really hope you don't eat us. We would appreciate it..." Dahra sayed and thought that if the snake ate them she'd be most ungratefull.

"No talking! you take it out and you're free, but if you hurt me the three of you will be sssupper" Coi - coi was firm about this. The wizard tried to refutate, but the look that the snake gave him was too severe and he just let his jaw open, with a finger in the air, but wisely chose to shut up. The giant snake layed her head on the ground in front of the three adventurers and opened her huge mouth at them. A stench of fish came out of it and none of them liked it, but Wyrmir almost puked whatever nothingness he had in his stomach, but held it.

The thing was serious. The armor was "put" in one of her teeth, and not just that, but she even had the sword of the aten knight was buried in her gumms.

"Hummm... this won't be easy. How will we do this?" Dahra asked Kedri

"Do you still have any healing potion?"

"No"

"Wyrmir, take one of the healing potions that I have in my bag, in No One Knows's back and give it to Dahra." while Wyrmir did as he was told, Kedri told Dahra how she thought it could be done. "Ok, I don't know how about you, but I think it will be less painfull if we just pull the thing out. While I pull it out you can rub her with healing potion and pray that it doesn't hurt her" not having any better idea, Dahra just nodded and recieved the healing liquid vial that her friend was giving her. She poured some in a piece of her cloak and waited for Kedri to start pulling.

"Ok, the sword first" muttered Kedri and started pulling the sword out of the snake's gumms. As Kedri was standing in the snake's tongue, she felt it moving, swallowing saliva, and prayed to Tayra that the snake didn't swallow her too, but for the move she knew it was hurting in spite of the healing potion that the Piggot was rubbing in the wound. Finally, after long 10 minutes of pulling and rubbing, the sword finally came out. Kedri fell in her butt in the soft tongue of the snake and pulled herself again on her feet swiftly and threw the sword outside.

"Good girl! now the armour. How will we take this one out?" the Arborum scratched her head a few times.

"If we can unlock the locks it could be easier" sayed Dahra while doing so "Now you pull it out while I rub her again"

In the meantime, Wyrmir took the sword from the ground, to keep anyone from tripping with it and get injured.

Dahra looked at the vial of healing potion and her eyes grew wide opened "There's no more healing potion!"

"No way!" sayed Kedri

"Is true, no more healing potion!"

Wyrmir sighed and pushed Dahra slightly. "Let me do my job" he rubbed his hands "Kedri, pull" the Arborum pulled with all her strength, again, trying to cause the less harm possible. All the while, Wyrmir had his hands over the huge tooth of the snake, glowing with a soft blue colour and chanting a spell very softly. This time Kedri could feel that the snake felt no pain at all, for the lack of movement in her tongue. Pulling the armor out took twice the time that the sword, but finally it came out. It was completely ragged and useless for anyone due to the acids of the serpent's saliva, but the sword was in amazingly perfect conditions.

As soon as Kedri and wyrmir came out of her mouth, Coi - coi smiled at them.

"THANK YOU! WOU! THIS FEELSSS GREAT! now wait a minute, ok? I'll be right back" she sayed and happily jumped to the water and dived to the bottom of her lake.

In the meantime, Dahra examined the sword. It was plainly huge, a little longer than a long sword and as she tried to wield it she realiced that she had to grab it with both hands because it was too heavy.

After a few minutes, when Coi - coi finally came out of the water, she was carrying a heavy chest made of half rotten wood.

"Thisss isss a gift for you. To ssshow gratitude for taking that nuisssance out of my mouth." Kedri and her friends looked at each other, wondering what kind of gift could a rotten chest be, but they thanked her for it any ways. "You will go to thossse high treesss, won't you?"

"Yes, why?" Wyrmir sayed

"Promissse me sssomething, pleassse. Promissse me that after that you will come back to tell me what you find there"

Kedri smiled and patted Coi - coi's cheek "Of course, we will"

Coi - coi was about to leave when she remembered something and turned to her new allies again "Before I forget... remember this: _The guardian hides the key of the cell to the right_" and jumped to the water again, not giving any explanation on what this warning was about.

"What did she mean?" Wyrmir asked

"No idea" Dahra shrugged "but I'll keep that in mind, just in case. Now let's see what this rotten chest has inside.

They opened the chest and saw that it was full of water, but it also had a lot of furs, boots, capes and other usefull things to get dressed, but mostly, furs. After taking all the wet things out and hunging them in branches nearby to dry them, they all helped to take the water out of the chest, so they could move it easier and when they tried to move it they realiced it was still very heavy, although it had nothing inside.

"How strange!" Dahra scratched her head and all of them tried pushing and pulling the chest up, to the high trees, but they could barely move it about 10 feet.

"This is not working" Dahra held her axe high and was about to break the rotten wood of the chest. At least that way they would be able to use it as wood for a fire. Kedri knew that wet wood wouldn't light, but the rest insisted so much that she had to agree.

"NOOOOO!" a little voice was heard while the axe was comming down, and Dahra was fast enough to stop before hitting the chest.

The three friends looked at each other disconcerted and waited for a few seconds, thinking that with all the strange things that happened to them in the Geetah lately, it could happen that the chest was talking, but as the voice wasn't heard again Dahra held the axe up one more time.

"NOOOOO! DON'T BREAK MY HOUSE!"

This time they realiced that the voice came from the inside of the chest. Completely stunned, Wyrmir reopened the chest. A tiny little brilliant thing shoot out of it and flew like a mad little brilliant thing around the three of them, even around No One Knows who tried desperately to catch whatever that flying brilliant spot was. It kept flying for about a whole minute, and when it finally stopped in front of Kedri's face the group realiced that it was a faerie, and she was really upset. Wyrmir quickly closed the chest again.

"Why did you want to break my house, HUH? WHY?" she yelled at them with a pitched voice

"Hum... We're sorry, we didn't know it was your house" sayed Kedri while scratching the back of her head. "If we knew it before we wouldn't even have tried. Sorry"

"Yes, easy to say "I'm sorry; I'm sorry" but it wasn't your house that was almost destroyed by a trio of giants, right?" Kedri looked puzzled and then she realiced that the giants were them.

"Coi-coi gave us this chest because we helped her. We emptied it and then tried to move it, but to no avail, so we were going to make a fire with the wood. We didn't know it was your house. If we knew we wouldn't have tried to brake it." This time Dahra was the one who spoke.

The tiny sprite sighed and rolled her eyes. "Open the chest again" she commanded and Dahra complied. Under the cover of the chest she showed them a mechanism with a little wheel. "Turn the wheel" the sprite sayed and Dahra did so. "Now close the chest again" The faerie was explaining it as if she was talking to a 5 years old human. Dahra did what the sprite sayed any ways and as soon as the chest was closed it shrank. Now it wasn't bigger than Dahra's hand. "See? and to make it bigger you must do the same" The fae looked at the "giants" and saw they were all amazed. "My name is Kikirikán, and you are...?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Dahra" everyone introduced themselves to Kikirikán and went to find wood to start a fire. It was getting late and nobody rushed them to move on, but the wood was too wet to light it, so Kikirikán flew over the wood and chanted a spell. In a second the wood was dry and in flames.

"TADAAAAA!" bowed the faerie and everyone clapped at her. After all, she was really nice. Kedri and Dahra extended the furs in front of the fire to get them dried. they would prove quite usefull now that the nights were so cold, but not tonight. the furs wouldn't be completely dry untill the morning.

"YAWWWNNN!" Kedri stretched herself "We should make turns to watch and sleep tonight. Tomorrow will be a heavy day"

"Hahaha..." laughed Wyrmir "we're in the border of a lake where a giant snake lives and you think that anyone would be so foolish to come and bother us?"

"Well, Wyrmir" started Kikirikán "Coi-coi sleeps too, so it would be wise to take turns. I'll take the first, then I'll sleep inside my house".

They organized the turns and went to sleep. It was a quiet and silent night, and in fact nothing bad happened.

The next morning Kikirikán woke up first and flew to Dahra to wake her up, then Kedri and Wyrmir. She didn't want to get close to the wolf. They still had nothing to eat for breakfast, but were starting to get used to hunger. Something told them it was going to be a while untill they ate again. The eggs were still there, but they wouldn't dare to touch them now, and Coi-coi was nowhere on sight. Not even the fishes were close enough to fish them, so the gathered the furs and put them in No One Knows back, then the rest of their things and moved to the north again, in the direction of the "tall trees", like Coi-coi used to call the big group of tall larches to the north of her lake.

_"The Lord of All Times is surrounded by his son's"_ Thought Kedri to herself as they kept walking. The wind was getting stronger and stronger while they, apparently, reached the bottom of a hill. What they thought it was strange was that surrounding the bottom of that hill was a tall stone wall.

"I'll talk to the trees, wait a minute" Kedri nibbled one of the larches and focused to stablish communication. The tree was very sleepy.

_"Hello"_

_"YAWWWNNN! HUM... hello"_

_"Do you know why that stonewall's there and what's behind it?"_

_"Hmmm... no... It was there when I was born... now let me sleep"_

She couldn't take anything else from the larch, so she tried with another tree, but to no avail. Noone knew what was behind the stonewall. Kedri felt frustrated, but nothing came to her mind. She started praying to Tayra, the Arborum goddess of water, trees and soil. She threw afist full of dust over her shoulder and planted a seed, then she tried to communicate again with another larch.

This time, though, Tayra smiled at her faithful follower and talked to her. Kedri could hear her soft voice in her heart; not the voice of the tree, but the very voice of her goddess. She was teaching her, not what's behind the wall, but a spell. The spell summons a spectral Bear. Tears shred from the Shoni arborum's green eyes with emotion. She never thought of herself as of someone worth enough to be considered by the gods, and there she was, listening to Tyra herself. When Tyra stopped teaching her, the connection broke, and Kedri realiced she was on her knees, calming down.

She went back to her friends. "The trees are too sleepy to talk and most of them were born after the wall was already here" she sayed, but sayed nothing about her chat with the godess. There was too much wind in the place to climb any tree. "Kikirikán, you're small enough and you can fly, could you fly and tell us what's on the other side?"

The tiny sprite nodded and flew over the stone wall. She had to hung to a larch to avoid flying away for the strength of the wind. Kikirikán went pale. She flew down again to Kedri and her friends.

"Hummm... it was a real pleasure to meet and travel you, but I have something really important to do now. Good luck in whatever you have to do!" and with that she flew away, not saying a word and not even bothering to look back. She flew as if fire was chasing her, leaving the chest that was her home with the trio of adventurers that stared at her as she flew away.

_"Coward"_ thought Kedri.


End file.
